Flight of the Halberd
by TheOnyxHedgehog
Summary: A group of supervillains known as the Black Hole Army has attacked Meta Knight and stolen his battleship, the Halberd! It's up to Sonic and his friends, along with a gifted human named Kyle to stop them from using the ship to take over the world!
1. Chapter 1: The Halberd Hijacking

_**FLIGHT OF THE HALBERD: PART 1**_

The Halberd Hijacking

It was a beautiful and sunny day out in San Diego, California, where me and my teammates, the Sonic Heroes, were on vacation for the summer. Sonic and I were tanning on the beach, Tails was surfing, Knuckles was sparring with Shadow, and Silver and Ty were building a sand castle. "Sighhh…this is the life Sonic," I began to say. "Laying out on the beach, no bad guys to fight, hanging out with our best friends,…it doesn't get any better than this." "Amen to that, man! I wish this would never end!" Sonic replied.

But before we could say anything else, Tails surfed near the shoreline, with a HUGE wave coming behind him. We peered out of our sunglasses to check it out, and all we could do was watch as the giant wave crashed into the sand. Tails came to a stop and came over to us, and when he saw what had happened, he froze up. All of us stared angrily at Tails, especially Ty, whose sand castle was completely demolished. Tails turned red in the face with embarrassment and said, "Heh heh…my bad guys…"

Sure, it sounds like we're having fun on the beaches of San Diego, but we didn't realize that there was an evil plot about to unfold…a plot so sinister that it would threaten the fate of the entire world.

**MEANWHILE…**

At the base of our sworn enemies, the Black Hole Army, things were really, really boring. Evil Bomber (Bomberman's ex-nemesis) was sleeping, and Meowth, who had left Team Rocket for better work, was surfing the Internet. In the main control room, our sworn enemy Razorbeard was researching new tactics to forever destroying us. After almost 10 years of fighting us, the Black Hole Army has NEVER defeated us, although I'll admit, sometimes they've come really close. As Razorbeard was looking stuff up, he found something that really caught his eye. After further investigation, he decided it was time for action.

"MEOWTH!! EVIL BOMBER!! GET IN HERE!!!!!" Razorbeard snapped. They rushed into the control room with no hesitation. "Hey boss, what's up? Did you find us another evil scheme?" Meowth questioned. "As a matter of fact, I have!" Razorbeard replied. "Here, check this out. According to my data, the one and only Sir Meta Knight has finished repairing his old battleship, the Halberd. It appears to be stationed out in some abandoned warehouse in Pasadena, California. Check out these modifications he's made on it!"

Apparently this new version of the Halberd had more turrets around the perimeter of the ship, a combo cannon, and tons of new weapons. Then Evil Bomber exclaimed, "Oh and look, it's got cup holders!!" The others stared at him confused. "Sorry, go on."

"Okay, so we've got all the data we need, so here's the plan," Razorbeard said. He brought the guys into a huddle and gave them the sinister plan. "All right, you guys understand?" Razorbeard questioned. "Sir, yes sir!" they quickly replied. "Hehehehe, excellent. Well then, if there are no further questions, we're off to Pasadena! Let's move out!!!" And with that, the Black Hole Army was off to put their evil scheme into action.

**IN PASADENA…**

At the Halberd air base (abandoned warehouse), Sir Meta Knight's troops were putting the finishing touches on the battleship. "Meta Knight, sir! The Halberd is almost ready for launch!" one of his flunkies reported. "Good work," Meta Knight replied. "Tell everyone that we will be launching in 10 minutes." The mysterious warrior paced the floor, concocting plans to reclaim his lost empire in Dream Land. He thought to himself, "Soon the time will come when I return to Dream Land, and all will be as it once was."

All of a sudden, an explosion rocked the warehouse and tore up the roof. Three figures flew in from the fiery smoke and landed with a deafening THUD. Meta Knight flew into the air to avoid the chaos, and after landing back on the ground, he took a hard look at his attackers. The smoke cleared, and the attackers' identities were revealed.

"All right, listen up jerkwads! We're the Black Hole Army, and we're taking over your battleship!" Razorbeard ordered. "You and what army?" Meta Knight snapped. "What army?" Razorbeard replied back. "What army?! THIS ARMY!!!" At that moment, loads of Black Hole Army troops (consisting of Covenant forces and Razorbeard's robots) stormed the warehouse and took out all of Meta Knight's men. At the same time, Evil Bomber, Meowth, and Razorbeard took no time beating up Meta Knight. With his army vanquished, Meta Knight was backed up into a corner.

Razorbeard approached the defeated warrior and said, "So, Meta NAUGHT, who's gonna stop us from taking over your ship now?" He couldn't answer, because he was too weak to do anything. "Troops! Load up the Halberd and prepare to launch!!" Razorbeard commanded. It took about 20 minutes to get the ship ready, but the Black Hole Army was finally set.

"Okay everyone, are we ready to go?" Razorbeard questioned over the Halberd intercom. There was a consensus of "Sir, yes sir!", followed by Meowth giving the thumbs up for launch. "We're all set, boss!" he exclaimed. "Excellent!" Razorbeard replied. "Fire up the engines…and…" After a few seconds of the engines warming up, the command was given… "IGNITION!!!!" The Halberd lifted off the ground and flew out of the warehouse doors. It seemed as if the Black Hole Army's plan was getting off on a good start.

Meta Knight, though weak and in pain, wasn't about to let his precious battleship get away. In a desperation attempt, he hurled his sword at the Halberd's left engine, making a direct hit. Right after he threw the sword, he fainted from exhaustion. Inside the cockpit, alarms went blaring like crazy. "Meowth, what the heck just happened?!" Razorbeard fumed. In shock, Meowth replied, "Well, it looks like Meta Knight's sword has punctured the left engine. I don't think he wants us leaving with his ship." "Grrrrr…this guy is getting on my nerves…" Razorbeard said to himself.

The Black Hole Army was forced to land the Halberd at an abandoned launch base nearby. Razorbeard got back on the intercom and said, "Attention troops of the Halberd! Commence with repairs of the left engine and report back to me when you're finished. During that time, we'll be looking for spare engine parts, so we'll be back shortly. Now get to work!!" Razorbeard, Meowth, and Evil Bomber then got out of the ship and started looking for a nearby town.

Back at the warehouse, Meta Knight regained consciousness and looked around at the wreckage. He then gazed into the sunset among the horizon, and thought to himself, "I can't believe after all this hard work, these villains came and robbed me of my greatest weapon. Now that it's in their hands…the world is in great danger…"

**With the Black Hole Army in control of the Halberd, things aren't looking very good right now! But it's only a matter of time before the Sonic Heroes find out about this dastardly plot and put a stop to it!...or at least we hope. But what will come of the Halberd and Meta Knight? Don't miss the next exciting chapter of this thrilling adventure!!!**

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	2. Chapter 2: DW Factory Fracas

_**FLIGHT OF THE HALBERD: PART 2**_

DW Factory Fracas

**When we last left off in our story, while the Sonic Heroes were relaxing at the beaches of San Diego, the Black Hole Army had just broken into Meta Knight's secret building facility for his battleship, the Halberd. After taking over the ship and eradicating Meta Knight's troops, the BHA seemed unstoppable. However, before Meta Knight passed out, he managed to puncture the Halberd's engine and ground the villains. Due to this unseen circumstance, Razorbeard, Meowth, and Evil Bomber must now find engine parts to repair the Halberd. But little do the BHA and the Sonic Heroes know that their paths WILL cross, and sooner than they think…**

Back at the beach, the guys and I were burying each other in the sand and munching on some snacks. Sonic, being the big spender that he is, decided that he would get one of everything from the snack bar. But when he couldn't finish more than half the food he bought, we wasted no time finishing it for him. Suddenly, I heard my phone ring. When I pulled it out of my pocket, I saw that my phone's alarm was going off. According to the alarm, we were supposed to be headed to the DW Drums factory tour in Oxnard, CA at 3:00.

"Dude guys! Get your butts in gear, we're gonna be late for the tour!" I exclaimed. Without hesitation, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Silver, and Ty gathered up all the beach stuff, packed it into our rental car (which, by the way, is a stylin' Mazda RX-8), and before you could say "ratamacue", we were on our way to Oxnard. Little did we know that we were about to have an unexpected encounter with our worst enemies…

**NEAR OXNARD, CA…**

The Black Hole Army was hacking through a large forest area just outside of town, still looking for parts to their ship. "Come on Boss, how much longer before we find some sort of factory or something?" Meowth whined. "Will you pipe down?! I'm getting us to one!!" Razorbeard snapped back. After countless minutes of chopping down trees and bickering from the trio of villains, they finally stumbled upon an old building. "Well, well, well…" Razorbeard said. "Boys, I think we've found our engine parts!" "Well then what are we waiting for, an invitation?! Let's go get some!!!" Evil Bomber replied. They made haste for the factory in hopes of finally getting some parts and repairing the Halberd.

Meanwhile, we finally made it to the DW Drums factory with a little time to spare. We went inside, registered for a tour, and chilled around the entrance for a while until the tour started. "Man guys, you're really gonna enjoy this tour," I told them. "DW Drums is one of the leading drum distributors in the world! Plus, some of the best drum & bugle corps and drummers use DW equipment too." The guys inquired about the drummers: "Gregg Bisonette? Johnny Rabb? Zoro? Steve Smith? Even…Neil Peart?" "Yup, ALL of them," I replied to them. They were quite intrigued with this information. But by the time I began telling them more, the tour was getting ready to start.

As we were innocently going about on our tour, what we didn't know was that we had uninvited guests in the factory. Not too far from our position, the Black Hole Army was trying to find their engine parts; they weren't having too much luck looking in a drum factory however. "Gahhh…metal rims, clamps, pedals, DRUM STICKS?! What kind of engine factory IS THIS?!?!?!" Razorbeard cried out. "Don't you see, Razorbeard?" Meowth quickly replied. "This isn't an engine factory…it's the DW Drums factory! It's always been my dream to actually see this place!" "Yeah, well put your dreams on hold, furball, we're here on official business," Evil Bomber said. "Aw, but look! They've got a brand-spanking-new marching snare drum over there! I HAVE to play on it!!" Meowth quickly rushed over to the drum, took a couple of marching snare sticks, and began to lay down some seriously sick beats.

I heard the snare drum beats being played, and I wondered where they were coming from. I peeked around a few corners, and sure enough, I saw a couple of blurry silhouettes near a snare drum. I couldn't make out who they were, but I had to catch back up to the tour group before they left me behind. For the rest of the tour, all I could really think about was who those people were…

When the tour ended at the gift shop, the guys came up to me, and Knuckles was the first to say something. "Hey Kyle, what's up? You looked a little miffed about something." "Well if you really wanna know," I replied back, "during the tour I saw a couple weird figures near one of the newly made snare drums. I can't shake the feeling that they looked kinda familiar…" "Well then, whaddaya say we head back in there later and check it out, mate?" Ty inquired. There was no way I was backing down from this opportunity.

**LATER THAT NIGHT…**

We snuck back into the factory using an air duct on the roof. Once we made it inside, we began searching around for anything suspicious. However, for most of the time, the only things we found were cymbals, lanyards, cowbells, and designer sticks. But after about an hour of searching, I heard the clean snare beats that I heard earlier that afternoon. "Hey guys, I hear something over here!" I told them. We followed the sound of the snare drum, and sure enough, we found the source of our mystery sound.

"Dang Meowth, how the heck are you so good at this stuff?!" Evil Bomber excitedly questioned. "What can I say? I'm just born with it," he replied. "Can we stop fooling around already?! We still gotta get parts for the Halberd in case you've forgotten!!" Razorbeard barked. "All right, all right, just let me…" "AHA!!! I knew you guys had something to do with all this!" I quickly exclaimed. The Black Hole Army almost immediately turned around to find us staring them down. "WHAT?! No way!! How did the twerps find us?!?" all three of them cried, completely in shock.

"All right, let's get down to the chase, what are you guys up to THIS time?" Sonic asked them. "Why should we tell you jerks?" Razorbeard quickly snapped back. Knuckles then rushed up to him, put a jagged fist into his face, and only replied, "THIS is why, Razor-Butt! Now start spilling!!!" "…Make us, fool…" "Knux, this is getting us nowhere," I said. "Besides, even if we did beat them up here, we'd destroy the factory in the process! There must be a better way to get rid of them…" Suddenly, a voice came from behind us, saying, "I believe I can help you guys out." We all turned to find out who was talking to us, and we couldn't believe our eyes, especially me.

We all stared at the mystery person for a few seconds before Silver was the first to ask: "Who the heck is that?" Meowth began to answer, but I beat him to it. "Silver, tell me you didn't just say that! Who is this you ask? Why, this is none other than the acclaimed John Wooton, Head of Percussion Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi, Percussion Caption Head of Phantom Regiment from 1987-1989, their Percussion Consultant in 1990, and a Pearl Drums marching percussion clinician since 1989!!! But Mr. Wooton, what are you doing here?" "Well, I was checking out the factory, and I couldn't help but overhear your dilemma. It may be a bit unorthodox, but I might have a solution to this little problem. We're going to have…a SNARE DRUM DUEL!!!"

"Wait a minute, a WHAT?!" we queried. Wooton began to elaborate. "Yes, you heard right, a snare drum duel. One person from each side will step up to this brand new marching snare and play one solo of their choice. I will judge each solo played, and based on the comments that I give, I will decide who wins." "Ahhh, okay, that makes more sense," I said.

"Haha, I am TOTALLY up for this! You're goin' down, punks!" Meowth boasted. "I don't think so, Meowth, because you have to go up against ME!" I retorted back. With my skills, there was no way I could lose. But I know I had a good challenge ahead of me, because I know Meowth could lay down some serious beats. The time for stalling was over, and it was time to get down to business.

**A FEW MINUTES LATER…**

The drum was ready to go, and the stage was set. As Wooton sat down at his judging table, he said, "Very well then, if there are no further questions…let the snare drum duel begin!!!" Meowth was the first to play. He stepped up to the snare, pulled a couple marching sticks from the nearby conveyor belt, and got ready to play. Meowth was just as good a percussion player as me, so I knew I was in for some stiff competition. After some well-played paradiddles, flam drags, and lesson 25's, he finished with some double stop shots. "Yeah Meowth!! That's how it's done!" Razorbeard exclaimed. Meowth walked past me, and as he did he said only one thing… "Beat that…loser." I wasn't gonna take that comment lying down.

I stepped up to the drum, picked up a fresh pair of sticks, and mentally prepared for my performance. My solo wasn't going to be easy to pull off, but I sure was ready for it. I started off with some stick clicks, then went straight into some chutras, cheeses, and tons of other random crap that Meowth couldn't touch. I even did a little syncopation trick with a brush and a tennis ball. For my big finale, I did a one-handed roll, followed it up with a couple pataflaflas, a flam 5-stroke roll, two extra chutras, and finally bringing my sticks way above my head and ending with a HUGE double stop shot. Following the ending shot, I went over to Meowth, shoved my sticks in his face, and simply dropped them, indicating that he just got completely owned. Meowth was in a state of disbelief.

My teammates were completely ecstatic by this point. "Oh my god Kyle! That was AWESOME!!!" Tails exclaimed. "Yeah, man, I can't believe you pulled that off!" replied Sonic. "I have to admit, that was actually really good," Shadow chimed in. Meanwhile, Razorbeard and Evil Bomber were complaining about how I showed up Meowth so easily…but whaddaya expect? They're pretty sore losers when it comes to us beating them.

"All right, everyone, I've tallied up the final scores," Wooton announced. "The winner of this duel is…Kyle McNiece!" "YES!!! In your face, furball!!!" I cheered. "I'm glad I could help settle your dispute, everyone. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to a clinic that I'm doing in New York." And with that, John Wooton was off. It sure was an honor to be judged by such an amazing drummer.

"Ha! How does it feel to be beaten AGAIN, mates?!" Ty snapped at our rivals. "All right, fine! We know when we're beat," said Razorbeard. "Besides, this dump doesn't make for a good engine factory anyway," he whispered to himself. "But don't think you've seen the last of us yet! Mark my words, Sonic Heroes, soon we will meet again on the field of battle, and when that time comes, you all will FACE OUR WRATH!!!!! Come on boys, let's get outta here!" A bright flash blinded us for a few moments, and when we could see again, the Black Hole Army was gone, leaving nothing in their wake.

"So now what?" Knuckles asked me. "Well, I have no idea to be honest…although Razorbeard mentioned something about the "field of battle". I wonder what that meant…?" All of a sudden, a flier floated down from the top of the factory and landed on my head. I noticed it above me, so I grabbed it and took a look at it. It was an advertisement for the DCI World Championships in Pasadena, an event that I was actually going to be attending. "Guys, do you realize what's going on here?" I asked them. Tails hesitantly replied, "Umm, DCI is expanding their marketing campaign?" A small pause occurred, followed by me saying, "True, Tails, I guess they're doing that, but check it out. These championships are being held at the Rose Bowl, and what is that? A field! That's what Razorbeard meant by "field of battle"! Don't you get it? The Black Hole Army wants us to compete against them in the DCI World Championships!!"

"W-W-What?!" the guys stammered. "But, that's only 2 days away! How are we gonna get into a corps and compete with them in only 2 days?!" Sonic cried out. "I actually have a good idea, fellas," I replied. "I have some experience with a certain drum corps, even though I didn't exactly make it. But for a situation like this, they HAVE to let us in. Pack your bags and get ready guys, we're headed to Pasadena to play with…PHANTOM REGIMENT!!!!!"

**With the Black Hole Army defeated (for the moment) and the next challenge being laid down, our heroes don't have much time to prepare for the contest of a lifetime! Will the Sonic Heroes be able to join the Phantom Regiment and duke it out with the Black Hole Army at the DCI World Championships? And will the BHA ever get the Halberd fixed?! Stay tuned to the next chapter to find out!!!**

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	3. Chapter 3: The DCI World Championships

_**FLIGHT OF THE HALBERD: PART 3**_

The DCI World Championships

**We last left our heroes at the DW Drums factory in Oxnard, CA squaring off once again against their rivals, the Black Hole Army. However, they weren't going to settle this dispute the old-fashioned way. With the sudden appearance of John Wooton, things took a strange turn. Meowth and Kyle then decided to have a snare drum duel to determine the winner of this fight. Tons of clean beats were laid down, but Kyle ended up wowing the crowd more. But now a greater and more difficult challenge has been thrown down by the Black Hole Army…dueling drum corps at the DCI World Championships! We now rejoin our heroes on the road to Pasadena…**

"Come on Kyle, kick this thing into high gear!" Tails exclaimed. "Hey, this car can't go any faster guys!" I replied. We flew down the California cliffside roads in our RX-8 on our way to Pasadena in order to join the Phantom Regiment. It was our only way to compete with the Black Hole Army in the upcoming DCI World Championships. Ever since they laid down the challenge back in Oxnard, we had been driving ever since. After a while, we passed a sign that said Pasadena was only 10 miles away. "Sweetness, we're almost there! Come on guys, let's burn rubber!" And with that, we sped off into the distance.

We arrived at a local high school where the Phantom Regiment was rehearsing. As we got out of the car and walked over to the football field, we heard the reverberating sounds of the horns and drumline filling the air. "Wow, I always wanted to play with a drum corps, but I never thought I'd be getting in like this!" I said. Just a few minutes later, we found the executive director of the Phantom Regiment, Rick Valenzuela. Upon spotting him, I went up to him and gave him our story. Hopefully he would remember me after the tryouts I went to back in November, but I hoped for the best.

"Mr. Valenzuela, I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Kyle from the November 2006 tryouts, and these are my teammates Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Silver, and Ty. We're the Sonic Heroes, and we really need to ask a favor of you. You see, our arch-rivals, the Black Hole Army, have joined a rival drum corps; I believe they're with the Blue Devils. Now they've challenged us to compete with them at the World Championships tomorrow. So what we would like to ask of you is this: would you allow us to join the corps and perform in the World Championships with you guys? Believe me, the fate of the world depends on it!"

"Ah, Kyle, I do remember you," Valenzuela began to say. "Well your story seems pretty lack-luster, but if the fate of the world hangs in the balance, then what else is there to do? You and your friends are in! Now if I remember correctly, you were a marimba player right?" "Yes sir, and the guys here can do just about anything you want them to." After some quick situating, Ty and I were in the front ensemble (me on marimba, Ty on vibes), Sonic, Knuckles, Silver, and Shadow were on the snare line, and Tails was on lead trumpet. Valenzuela then climbed back up the tower and said, "All right, now that we have the new guys in place, let's take it from the top!" And with that, the training for the showdown of a lifetime began.

**THE FOLLOWING EVENING…**

The lights shone down on the Rose Bowl, with 40,000+ fans screaming their heads off in the stands. It was finally time for the DCI World Championships, and after many other corps performed their shows, there were only two corps left to perform: the Blue Devils and Phantom Regiment. As we were getting ready for our performance, Razorbeard, Meowth, and Evil Bomber managed to find us. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the Sonic ZEROES!" Razorbeard proclaimed. "Oh great, just what we need…" I replied. Razorbeard then continued by saying, "So it looks like you managed to get into a drum corps and face off against us, I applaud your efforts! However, there is NO chance of you guys beating us! You'll see what I mean once we get out on the field. Now if you'll excuse us…it's show time!!" With that, the Black Hole Army got with their corps and marched onto the field. We watched from the corps entrance, and as the show was going on, Sonic asked me, "You think we have a chance Kyle?" I paused for a few seconds, and only replied, "I don't know Sonic…I honestly don't know."

The Blue Devils finished their show, then marched off the field. As they passed by us, Meowth nudged me in the side, and whispered to us, "Beat that…losers." I would have said something, but I didn't have the time. We got our equipment ready and moved onto the field. Finally, the time to rock the stadium had come. The announcer came onto the microphone and began to introduce us. "On the field, from Rockford, Illinois, performing their 2008 program, Spartacus…Drum Corps International is proud to present… PHANTOOOOM REGIMENT!!!!!" The crowd roared in excitement. "Are the judges ready?...Drum majors, is your corps ready?" The tension was almost unbearable. "You ready for this Ty?" I whispered. "More than you could possibly imagine, mate," he replied back. Then the announcer finished by saying those famous words… "Phantom Regiment, you may take the field for competition."

Ty and I started off the show with a nice relaxing melody, followed by the rest of the front ensemble adding in while the rest of the corps marched around behind us. Then Tails led the trumpets and the rest of the corps in the bombastically high-pitched melody. Sonic, Knux, Silver, and Shadow then laid down some rolls and busted some cheeses and other crazy rudiments. We kept the crowd in awe and amazement for the next 10 minutes before we finally ended the show like every Phantom Regiment show ends: on a loud and proud B flat major chord with the drums banging and cymbals crashing. We let off the note and stood triumphantly looking straight up at the crowd. They were going absolutely nuts. At that moment, I knew down in my heart that we had played one seriously kick-ass show.

After a bit of waiting, all the corps gathered onto the field for the awards ceremony. As far as I was concerned, the other corps didn't matter, because it was just between me and Razorbeard. The final scores were tallied, and the announcer began to announce the results. 12th through 4th place were secured by the other corps, and the only ones left were the Cavaliers, the Blue Devils, and Phantom Regiment. "In 3rd place, with a score of 96.5…the Cavaliers!" We breathed a sigh of relief. All that was left was 2nd and 1st, and only one of us was getting the top prize.

"In 2nd place, with a score of 98.1…" The guys and I huddled together, hoping for the best. "THE BLUE DEVILS!!!" "WHAT?!?!" Razorbeard cried out in anger. "YES!!!!!" we all exclaimed. While the rest of the Blue Devils took in their 2nd place finish, the Black Hole Army stormed off the field in disgust. "And in 1st place, with a score of 98.125…PHANTOM REGIMENT!!!!!" The corps, the guys and I celebrated like there was no tomorrow. After only one day of working with them, we were able to pull of a victory and help give Phantom Regiment their first ever championship.

We walked off the field with medals hung around our necks and smiles on our faces. "Man I can't wait to see the look on Razor-Butt's face when we show him these medals!" Tails cheered. "I hear ya on that one buddy!" I chimed in. "Speaking of which, I wonder where he went off to? Probably went off to sulk with his flunkies…hehe…" But what we didn't know was that Razorbeard had just gotten a call that would make his day.

"Hang on guys, I got a call," Razorbeard said to his henchmen. He pulled out his cell phone. "What is it, you ignorant fool? I'm busy!...wait…what? Are you SERIOUS?!...hahaha, YES!!! Excellent work, soldier! We'll be there shortly!" "What's the word, boss?" Meowth asked. "The others have finished repairing the Halberd! We're back in business boys!!" Razorbeard replied confidently. "Now, we need to get outta here without those Sonic Has-beens finding out…"

The Black Hole Army began to sneak towards a gate at the far left of the stadium, out of our sight. However, their plan didn't go as expected. "Hey Kyle, I gotta go get a quick drink before we leave, I'll be right back!" Tails said. He went over to the only open concessions stand to get a soda. This concessions stand also happened to be at the far left of the stadium…you can guess what's gonna happen next.

Tails saw Razorbeard, Meowth, and Evil Bomber sneaking towards a gate, and he didn't hesitate to yell out, "KYLE!!! OVER HERE!!!!" I turned to find Tails pointing like crazy, while Razorbeard cocked his head over to Tails to find him pointing at them. It didn't take me long to spot the villains. "Hey you guys! Get back here!!!" "Boys, we've been found out! RUN!!!!" They bolted out the gate, while the guys and I gave chase after them. We had no idea where they were going, but I knew that if they got to wherever they were heading to, things were going to turn really, really ugly.

**After an amazing performance by the Sonic Heroes & the Phantom Regiment, they were able to beat out Razorbeard and the Blue Devils in the championships! But there's no time to enjoy the victory, for the Black Hole Army is now on the run! Can the Sonic Heroes catch up to them before they reach their finished Halberd? Or will the Black Hole Army finally be able to start their global domination unchallenged? Stay tuned for the next thrilling chapter of our story!!**

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	4. Chapter 4: Cleared for Terror!

_**FLIGHT OF THE HALBERD: PART 4**_

Cleared for Terror!

**When we last left our heroes, they had finished a phenomenal performance with the Phantom Regiment and beat out the Black Hole Army and the Blue Devils at the DCI World Championships in Pasadena. But there was no time for the Sonic Heroes to celebrate their victory, because now that Razorbeard knows about his newly rebuilt Halberd, he and his cohorts are on the run towards the deadly battle cruiser! We rejoin Kyle & the gang in the heat of the chase…**

"RAZOR-BUTT, GET BACK HERE!!!" I screamed with fury. We were hot on the trail of the Black Hole Army as they fled towards a mysterious wooded area just along the outskirts of Pasadena. "Hurry guys, we're almost there!" Razorbeard told Meowth & Evil Bomber. "I sure hope so Boss," Meowth replied shakily, "because I think they're gaining on us!" "Kyle this ain't good!" Sonic shouted. "Wherever they're going, I think they're almost there! We gotta hurry!" "Stay on em boys," I replied, "they won't be running for long!" After about 10 more minutes of chasing, we came upon a large clearing, which after observing the area, revealed an abandoned airfield. From the looks of things, I assumed that the Black Hole Army's main objective was at that airfield. Without hesitation, we sped towards the runway.

"Razorbeard if they keep following us, they'll soon learn everything and we'll be hosed!" Evil Bomber exclaimed. But before Razorbeard had time to think, a mysterious figure appeared in front of the Black Hole Army and halted their progress. The guys and I were stopped soon afterwards. After a minute or two of silence, the ghastly figure spoke out. "You! Razorbeard! You have something of mine…and I want it back NOW!!!" He unsheathed a large, jagged, golden sword lit aflame with the powers of the gods. Upon laying eyes upon that sword, the guys and I knew exactly who we were dealing with.

"Hmph, so you've come back for more, eh Meta Knight?" Razorbeard chuckled. "I thought I took care of you a few days ago, but I see now that I was wrong. But I assure you this…I won't make the same mistake twice!!!" "Enough talk, vile fiend!" Meta Knight snapped back. "Now DIE!!!!!" He lunged at Razorbeard & co. with great agility and force; unfortunately Razorbeard was too quick. The metal menace dodged Meta Knight's attack with ease, and followed up with a lethal counter-attack that knocked him into submission. "Hahahahaha!! Is that the best you could come up with you puny shrimp?!" Razorbeard cackled. "That was hardly worth my time! Come on guys, we've got work to do!" And with that, the Black Hole Army sped off towards the airfield again.

"Grrrrr…they're getting away again!" I exclaimed. But before we could chase back after them, Meta Knight stopped us. "Sonic Heroes…wait!" We stopped and turned around to find him on his knees, hardly able to breathe. "You must…stop those thieves…" he gasped. We were confused enough already, but Knux was the first to speak out: "Huh? What are you talkin about dude?" After catching his breath a bit, he stood up slowly and began to explain the situation.

"About a week ago, those three derelicts from the Black Hole Army, Razorbeard, Meowth, and Evil Bomber, sabotaged the re-construction of my prized battle cruiser, the Halberd. They wiped out all of my troops, and although I put up a valiant effort, I was badly injured in the chaos. They hijacked my Halberd and left me to die in the wreckage. But I wasn't about to let them leave so easily. I pulled out my Golden Sword, and with a mighty throw, I managed to puncture the left engine of the ship. After that, it crashed down not too far from here, and that was the last that I saw of my cruiser."

"Wow man, that's pretty brutal…" I began to say. "But what can we do to help?" He stood silently for a few seconds, then turned to me and replied, "As much as it pains me to say this…I want you to destroy the Halberd." "WHAT?!" we all exclaimed. "But then you won't have your ship!" Tails cried. "Won't you have to build it all over again?" "It's a sacrifice I'll have to make if it means getting rid of those hooligans," he told us. "They have control of one of the greatest weapons in the known universe right now, which means only the worst can happen now. You have to board the cruiser and stop them by any means necessary." I chuckled confidently, and replied to him, "Any means eh? Then this should be a piece of cake!"

We prepared ourselves for the seemingly impossible mission that lied ahead of us and got ready to head towards the airfield. Before we took off, I turned to Meta Knight and told him, "Don't worry, we'll be sure to take down the Black Hole Army for you, and hopefully bring back your ship intact as well!" "Thank you Sonic Heroes," he replied. "I won't forget this." And with that, it was time to head out. "Sonic Heroes, LET'S ROLL!!!" We sped off into the distance. As we rushed into the fading sunset, Meta Knight muttered to himself, "Good luck you guys…the fate of the world rests on your shoulders now."

**AT THE AIRFIELD…**

We reached the rundown facility with no time to spare, and to be honest, the place definitely had the abandoned look to it. Buildings were in disrepair, and the tarmac lost its rubbery scent from ages of dormancy. The grass was almost as tall as us, and there wasn't a friendly face in sight. Jeez…talk about creepy.

"Hmm…now if I were a giant battle cruiser, where would I hide fellas?" Sonic questioned. We looked around for a bit, until Tails chimed in, "Umm…how about in that large, still intact warehouse?" Sure enough, we saw lots of strange activity going on inside there. "Good eye Tails! How'd you know they were there?" I asked him. "Ehh…lucky guess…" he sarcastically replied. We rushed over and peeked inside to find the Black Hole Army making final checks for the Halberd's takeoff.

"Engines!" Razorbeard called out to Meowth & Evil Bomber. "Check!" they replied. "Okay good…fuel tanks!" "Fully loaded and ready!" "Excellent…last and certainly not least, any sign of those Sonic Heroes?" We ducked back around the corner of the warehouse to avoid being seen. "No sir, not from what we can tell!" Meowth said. "Well in that case…FIRE THIS BABY UP!!!!" As they made their way to the central command center of the Halberd, the Black Hole Army troops positioned themselves around the perimeter of the ship. "Psst, guys look!" I whispered to my teammates. I pointed out a spot that troops weren't patrolling. "When they take off, we'll take this way and sneak on board, mmk?" They agreed without hesitation.

"All systems are go!" Razorbeard boasted. "T minus 10…9…8..." During the countdown, we made our way around the miscellaneous equipment strewn about the warehouse interior. We sneaked up a loading ramp towards the main deck of the Halberd. For a moment, we looked to be in the clear. Until… "Oh come on Boss! Just launch already!!!" Meowth screamed impatiently. "Fine…IGNITION!!!!!" The dual engines fired up, and the cruiser began to head out towards the Pacific Ocean. "Yikes! Guys, forget stealth! Just get on that ship NOW!!!" We blasted our way towards the deck, but the Halberd continued to increase speed.

"We're not gonna make it mates!" Ty cried out. "Oh yes we are Ty, just watch this!" Sonic replied confidently. With a quick burst of speed, he managed to catch up to the Halberd before it reached max speed. "Hey, if he can do that, then certainly I can too!" I quickly exclaimed. I followed suit and caught up to him, with the others bringing up the rear. Eventually we made it onto the main deck with plenty of energy to spare. Unfortunately, we didn't exactly get greeted with the best welcoming party.

Up in the command center, alarms started blaring across the area, and Razorbeard started freaking out. "Gahhhh what's going on Meowth?! Why are all these alarms going off?!" he snapped. "Umm…apparently, the Sonic Heroes managed to make their way on the ship…" Meowth weakly replied. "You incompetent DOLT!! I thought you said they weren't around before takeoff! Hmm…well no matter, I've got plenty of toys that are more than enough for these twerps!"

"Attention all troops!" Razorbeard announced on the PA system. "The Sonic Heroes have been detected on board! You are ordered to terminate them on sight!! That is all. Oh, and in case if you punks heard that down there…that's all for you as well! Muahahahahaha!!!" The PA clicked off, and in seconds we were surrounded by Covenant forces and Razorbeard's robots. "Well boys…" I began to say smugly, "You guys know what happens next?" In unison, they replied, "Ohhhh yeah!!" "I've been waiting for this for a LONG time!" Knux exclaimed. I pulled out the Chaos Emeralds, and in the blink of an eye, we were all powered up and ready to kick some serious butt!

**ABOUT 30 SECONDS LATER…**

The smoke cleared, and it was obvious who came out of that fracas victorious. We advanced onward towards the inside of the Halberd, into the main corridors. "Jeez Meowth, how did they get out of that alive?!" Razorbeard complained. "How should I know, Boss? E.B. is in charge of the troops!" Meowth snapped. Evil Bomber stared at Razorbeard blankly and said, "Don't look at me! It's not my fault that they can't stand up to the power of the Emeralds!" "Sighhh…I'm surrounded by idiots…" Razorbeard groaned.

As we were headed through the halls, Tails told me, "Kyle! I downloaded some schematics for the ship, and according to this, we're approaching the assault deck…man I wonder what that is?" "Beats me," I replied back. "I just know that wherever we're going, these guys better be ready for a beatdown!" But we were closely being watched by the BHA's sneaky surveillance cameras. "Razorbeard! They're headed up towards the assault deck! Do we get to unleash the Combo Cannon now?" Meowth queried. "No not yet Meowth," he replied. "I have a plan that could get those meddlesome Sonic Zeroes off of our ship…is the Heavy Lobster standing by?" "Hmm let me check…ah, yes it is. Why?" "When they reach the assault deck, send it out and distract them. Think you can do that, furball?" "Yes sir!"

After a few minutes of navigating the tricky corridors, we ended up back outside, surrounded by steel barriers and a giant structure a far distance ahead of us. With Razorbeard watching, he gave the signal to Meowth… "NOW!! Release the Heavy Lobster!" Meowth pulled the switch, and all of a sudden we saw a giant automatic battle mech rise up from the steel gratings below. Razorbeard then came back on the PA. "Sonic Heroes, meet the Heavy Lobster, an automatic battle mech that Meta Knight was SO nice to let me borrow from him! Have fun with him…you won't be seeing him for much longer!!! Hahahahaha!" Wow…not good.

"All right guys, this is just the start of Razor-Butt's tricks, so be careful! Attack it head-on and we should be fine!" I commanded. We launched some massive attacks against it, but the Heavy Lobster put up a good defense. After a couple blocks, it charged forward and knocked us off our feet. "Man, that thing's quick!" Knuckles grunted. "Yeah, but can it keep up with ME?" Sonic chuckled. As we continued battling the Heavy Lobster, we didn't know that Razorbeard had something more wicked up his sleeve.

"All right Meowth, when I give the word, shift into Overdrive so we can blow those Sonic Has-beens off the deck!" A few seconds passed… "NOW! OVERDRIVE!!!!!" "One dose of Overdrive coming right up Boss!" Meowth proclaimed. He pressed a few buttons, then cranked up the speed to 1,000 mph. As we continued battling, we noticed everything starting to move faster around us. "Guys…is it just me, or are we moving a LOT faster than we were about 10 minutes ago?" I asked, very worried. But before any of my teammates could reply, we began getting pushed back by the strong winds. "We're gonna get thrown off if we don't do something! Hang on guys!!!" Sonic cried out. However, our efforts proved unsuccessful. The winds picked us up and carried us off the Halberd and high above the clear blue waters of the Pacific. After floating in the air for a few seconds, I told the guys, "Fellas, to quote the immortal Bender…Well, we're boned!"

_**AAAAHH**__**HH**__**H**__**HH**__**HHHH**__**HH**__**HH**__**HHH**__**HHHHHHHH**__**HHHH**__**HHHHH**__**HHH……**_

The Black Hole Army stared at their radar screen as they watched the big green blip disappear from their scanners. "Oh my god…" Razorbeard said in awe. "We…We DID IT!!! Hahahaha! We got those no-good slimeballs off the Halberd! And for all I know, they could be rotting away in the ocean, getting eaten by sharks! But like I care, cuz the Sonic Heroes are finally GONE baby!!! Meowth, set a course back for the United States. It's time to show the world that we mean business, and we're gonna start our global conquest with…ARLINGTON, TEXAS!!! Haha, muahaha! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!"

**Oh no! Razorbeard has finally gotten rid of our heroes, and now they've been left for dead in the Pacific Ocean! Worse yet, now there's no one that can stop the Black Hole Army's reign of terror!! Is this the end for us all? Stay tuned for our next chilling episode!!!**

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	5. Chapter 5: Sonic Heroes VS Meta Ridley

_**FLIGHT OF THE HALBERD: PART 5**_

Sonic Heroes VS. Meta Ridley

**We last left our heroes in a most dire situation. Upon discovering what the Black Hole Army was really up to, Kyle and the rest of the team were determined to put a stop to their dastardly plans to dominate the planet with the Halberd. The Sonic Heroes managed to sneak onto the ship's main deck, but Razorbeard had a nasty trick in his pocket. Using Meta Knight's automatic battle mech, the Heavy Lobster, Razorbeard was able to distract our heroes long enough to send the ship to full speed and launch them off the deck. Now they've been left for dead in the harsh seas of the Pacific Ocean! With the Sonic Heroes gone, the Black Hole Army's plans were going smoothly...or so they thought! We now rejoin our heroes…**

The sun began to rise up beyond the tropical palm trees, and the cool ocean air blew along at a calm pace. As the seas crashed along the shoreline, they brought in with them a most unexpected cargo…me and my teammates. A few minutes after we landed on the sand, I awoke in a daze to find that we were still alive, but completely lost. "Guys, you still alive?" I asked them. I waited for a few seconds, but no response; they were out cold. So in order to bring them back, I did the only thing that could awaken anybody from a deep sleep: a huge splash of ice-cold water…or in this case, it would be a giant ice-cold ocean wave! I went out a few miles into the ocean, gathered up some energy, and shot it directly towards the ocean floor. The impact was powerful enough to get a large wave to form and storm its way towards the beach. Eventually, it hit its mark…

"**SPLASHHHHH!!" **"YIIIIIIIIII!!!!!" they all shrieked. As they regained their composure, Sonic snapped at me, "Jeez Kyle, was that really necessary?!" As I looked around for a second, I smirked at him and replied, "Mmmmm…yes." Sure it was a bit mean, but it was the only way to wake them up, so what other choice did I have? But that's beside the point, moving on now…

"So where are we Kyle?" Shadow asked me. "Well I'm guessing we're back on the shores of California," I replied. "But I don't think it's gonna be easy finding out where Razorbeard and his goons took the Halberd." "Actually Kyle, check this out!" Tails exclaimed. "I still have those schematics of the Halberd, and if I'm not mistaken, I believe I also got a tracking device with them as well!" Wow…Tails sure knows how to pull through in the clutch, huh? "SCORE!!! Tails what would we do without you?!" I cheered. "All right my furry friend, throw on that little watch of yours and let's track down those thieving little punks! Sonic Heroes, let's MOVE OUT!!!!!"

**BACK ON THE HALBERD…**

Razorbeard paced around the command center pondering what his next course of action would be. "Hmmm…I wonder how I should deliver the news to the world?" he asked himself. "Perhaps start off with a joke, and then get all serious-like after a few minutes…" "BOSS!" Meowth yelped suddenly. "What is it now, you feisty feline?!" Razorbeard snapped. Meowth pointed frantically at the radar screen and said, "I think that plan of yours didn't work out as well as you were hoping!" Sure enough, there were little blips showing up directly in the center of the screen. Razorbeard stared in amazement and said, "No…THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!"

"So now what? They're gonna be after us in a matter of minutes! And when they catch us…man oh man, it's not gonna be pretty!" Meowth cried. Razorbeard paced the floor again, until… "Hmm…actually there's really nothing to worry about. We'll be passing over that abandoned airfield again, so those Sonic Has-beens have to go back through there. Unfortunately for them, I have a little surprise in store for them when they get there…hehehehehe…" He positioned himself back in his chair at the center of the room, turned towards his flunkies, and ordered full speed ahead. Nothing was going to stop this metal menace this time…

The Halberd thundered its way over our heads on its trek back towards Arlington, TX. "Whoa! Looks like Razorbeard saved us the trouble of finding him!" Knuckles exclaimed. "Sonic Heroes…AFTER THAT SHIP!!!" I barked out. Using our X-Gears we somehow still had, we hit the ground running and chased after the Halberd. After nearly 30 minutes in pursuit of the battle cruiser, our chase led us back to the abandoned airfield…

**BACK AT THE AIRFIELD…**

"Well, at least it's not as creepy now as it was earlier," said Silver. We approached the airfield once again, only this time the glistening sun amongst the ocean gave it more of a tropical kind of look. "All right guys, if we're gonna have a chance to keep up with the Halberd, we're gonna need some good sets of wings," I stated. "We'll split up. Shadow, Silver, and Knuckles, you go over to South Warehouse. Ty and Tails, head to the West Hangar, and Sonic and I will take North Warehouse." After a few minutes of searching, none of us found anything significant. We met back up at the control tower at the center of the field. I began to say, "Well, the only other place we haven't searched is the East Hangar…but I bet we'll get the same results."

Suddenly, Ty caught a sniff of something with his super-sensitive nose. "Hang on mates, I smell something…other-worldly…" We were a bit confused, but we also happened to notice the direction of where the smell was coming from. "Seems like it's coming from that hangar we haven't checked yet!" Ty exclaimed to us. We rushed over as fast as we could, in hopes that we would find some sort of means to catch up to Razorbeard.

Inside the deserted hangar, there were traces of debris from years of disrepair. There were also several construction vehicles strewn about the facility. "This must be where they did most of the reconstruction on the Halberd," Sonic said. After a few minutes of investigating, there was a low rumble that slightly shook the building's foundation. "Yikes! What was that?" I asked worriedly. "Don't know, but there's something that I'm more concerned about than that…" Tails uttered worriedly. "Yeah? And what would that be?" Tails pointed to a giant pile of stone and debris and screamed, "THAT!!!"

An evil-looking pair of red, fiendish eyes began to glow from the debris. In an instant, stones and steel were thrown in several different directions, and what emerged from the wreckage was a creature that I was hoping I would never have to face twice in one lifetime…once again I was staring down Samus Aran's former nemesis, the dreaded _**META RIDLEY!!! **_With his powerful energy blasts and deadly razor-sharp claws, trust me: this is one guy that you DON'T wanna face in a dark alley…

"Sweet merciful GOD! What the heck is Meta Ridley doing here?!?!" I screamed. "Razorbeard must have resurrected him sometime after you defeated him a while back!" Shadow replied. "Looks like not only is he being used by the Black Hole Army to guard this area, but I think he's also looking for some well-deserved revenge!" Knuckles added in. Sonic stepped forward with confidence and said, "Well that cursed abomination isn't taking out our leader without a fight!" "Wait guys, hold on!" I quickly intervened. "The only way he's getting his revenge is if he takes on me. If it's a fight Meta Ridley wants, it's a fight Meta Ridley gets…and I'm the only one that can truly give it to him." It was a risky move, but I knew that this would be the only way to quell the beast once and for all.

Willing and ready to face the monstrous demon, I pushed a few buttons on my watch and, surrounded by a bright light, I donned the most appropriate armor to face Meta Ridley: the classic Varia Suit, worn by none other than the intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran. With my arm cannon warmed up, it was time to take this punk down. "All right Ridley, I beat you once before, and goddamnit I'm gonna do it again! Prepare for another serious smackdown!!!" Meta Ridley simply let out a monstrous roar. "Look out Ridley, cuz HERE I COME!!!!!"

I made the first move by firing a few shots from my arm cannon. Ridley quickly dodged and counter attacked with a fierce slash towards my chest. I made a couple jumps up to avoid the attack, then I did a Screw Attack towards his head, which made direct contact. Needless to say, he didn't take that very well. He grabbed me and slammed me against the wall with such force that it decimated the entire hangar. "KYLE! Are you all right?!" the guys cried out. Amidst the debris, I stood back up to find that Ridley was coming to attack again. I switched my cannon to missiles and unloaded on him, which surprisingly enough, did a substantial amount of damage. Apparently Razorbeard didn't armor up this guy as much as I had thought…but anyways, after unloading my missiles, I switched to my Plasma Beam. Using the Varia Suit's great agility, I managed to get around him and nail tons of weak spots on his body. After I greatly weakened him, I used my Ice Beam to freeze him into a giant monster-sicle.

"Heh…too easy!" I chuckled smugly. I removed the Varia Suit and decided to end this battle with a BANG…if you know what I mean. I shot up into the air, charged up some energy, and pulled off a fury of hand signs. I focused the energy into my hands, and with the force of a thousand meteors, I unleashed one of my most powerful attacks…

"**Burning…ATTACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"**

The giant energy bomb split through the ice and shattered it into millions of tiny pieces before dealing serious damage to Ridley. The force of the attack was too much for the monstrous behemoth, and he fell down towards the ground with a deafening **THUD**. For an evil reincarnation, this version of Meta Ridley sure wasn't as scary as I first thought, but…oh well, he's dead right?!

My teammates cheered as I landed back down on the burnt earth. "Man Kyle, you whooped that creep!" Tails exclaimed. "Yeah I know, and I wasn't even at full power! Haha…anyways, now that he's out of the way, let's try and find a way to catch up to the Halberd!" "Hmmm…Kyle I think we might have found one!" Shadow said as he pointed towards the wreckage of the hangar. The decimated hangar revealed a brand-spanking-new squadron of Arwings! "AWESOME!!!!!" I cheered enthusiastically. "These should be more than enough to get back to Razorbeard and his goons! Now who's up for a ride?!"

We each hopped in an Arwing and began to ignite the thrusters. "All right guys, y'all remember how to fly these things right?" I asked my teammates. "Yes sir! All ships operational and reporting in!" they replied back. With final checks complete, we lifted off and took to the skies at light speed. If Razorbeard thought he was getting off the hook that easily…he was DEAD WRONG!!!

Meanwhile, on the Halberd, Razorbeard was sipping on some fresh motor oil while listening to some Dragonforce. "Meowth, remind me again why I put you in charge of the music…?" Meowth simply shrugged his shoulders and returned to the computers. Suddenly, a thunderous crash rocked the ship. "Son of a…!! Evil Bomber! Meowth! What the heck is going on?!?!" Razorbeard snarled. "On it Boss!" they immediately replied. Meowth then began to report, "Umm Razorbeard? Looks like we've got trouble…" Razorbeard glanced at the radar, then quickly switched to an outside view of the ship. None of them could believe what they saw next. "Are those…Arwings?!?!?!?!"

"Guess who Razor-butt!" I exclaimed through the speaker of my headset. "We took care of your little pet, found your secret stash of Arwings, and now we're gonna finish what we started! Sonic Heroes, ATTACK!!!!!" I ended the radio transmission there. "Grrrrrrrrr…THAT'S IT!!!" Razorbeard screamed with rage. "Meowth!" "Yipe! Yes sir?" "It…is time. Unleash the COMBO CANNON!!!!!!!!!!!" "Woohoo!! I thought you'd never ask Boss!" Meowth threw the switch and activated the cannon's offensive capabilities. As my teammates and I drew closer towards the Halberd, the cannon fired off massive shots towards us. "WHOA! Guys, watch that cannon!" I warned the guys. "That thing's gonna take us down in one shot if we're not careful!" "Roger leader, we're goin in!" they replied.

And with that, we dove in and opened fire on the battle cruiser. It didn't matter anymore about keeping the ship intact, it was now about stopping the Black Hole Army once and for all. As we engaged the multiple enemies that surrounded us, we could only imagine what would happen if we didn't make it out of this skirmish alive. I radioed in to my team: "Fellas, just remember, this time it's all or nothing! Take no prisoners, kick some butt, and unleash some serious hell! Failure is NOT an option here!!! Now let's ROCK!!!!!!!!!"

**With the Sonic Heroes back in action, looks like there's nothing stopping them from taking down the Black Hole Army now! But will their attempts to stop Razorbeard's fiendish plan succeed? Or will everything they've worked so hard for be all for naught? And what dastardly tricks does Razorbeard have planned for our heroes?! The fight to save the world begins in our next action-packed chapter!! STAY TUNED!!!!!**

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	6. Chapter 6: Combo Cannon Chaos

_**FLIGHT OF THE HALBERD: PART 6**_

Combo Cannon Chaos

**When we last left our heroes, they had somehow managed to survive their near-fatal plunge into the Pacific. After recovering and tracking down the Halberd, they found themselves back at the abandoned airfield, only this time around, a familiar face was waiting for them. Meta Ridley had been resurrected from the dead to claim his revenge on the Sonic Heroes! But thanks to some quick moves from Kyle, the colossal creature got taken down to size. The team found some Arwings soon after, and took to the skies to stop the Black Hole Army's dastardly plans. We now join the aerial dogfight…**

"Sonic! Bogey on your six!" I exclaimed. Sonic pulled a somersault and blasted the enemy ship out of the sky. Razorbeard's troops were definitely trying to do a number on us, but that wouldn't happen without a fight. The Black Hole Army watched on as we continued taking down his troops one by one. "Gahhh! This just won't do!" Razorbeard cried out. "We need a plan." Silence fell over the bridge of the Halberd for about a minute or two. Razorbeard stared at Meowth & Evil Bomber with an evil glare, then barked out: "WELL WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING JUST STANDING THERE?! THINK OF SOMETHING YOU TWITS!!!!"

"Well Boss, I think I might have something," Meowth inquired. "The Combo Cannon would do more damage to em close-range right?" "Hmmm…" Razorbeard thought as he paced the floor. "You know, I think you're right…" He walked over to one of the computers, typed in some commands, and pressed a big, shiny red button. "Boys…get those Sonic Heroes on deck. And prepare to unleash…the dreaded COMBO CANNON! Hehehehehehehe…"

Back in the air, the guys and I finally eliminated all the enemies the Black Hole Army threw at us, so now was our chance to get back onto the battleship. However, in order to do that, we would have to max out our speed to be going faster than the Halberd, then eject from our cockpits and land on the deck without falling into the sky. Doesn't get any better than that right? So I was first up to make the daredevil jump onto the ship. I ejected from the cockpit, curled up into a somersault, and rolled onto the deck…a perfect 3-point landing. Sonic ejected, then pulled a Super Sonic Aerial Spin to land flatly on his feet. The others soon followed suit, but Tails and Knux had it easy, since they could float onto the deck. Either way, we all managed to get onto the Halberd safely and we were ready to kick some Black Hole Army butt.

Our first order of business was to continue where we had been abruptly interrupted, which was on the assault deck that we had landed on. "Hey guys, does this look familiar?" I asked the guys. We stared ahead of us for a bit, and Sonic was the first to say: "Hey, this is the same spot that we got thrown off the ship last time!" "Exactly!" I replied. "And we're gonna make sure that we don't make the same mistake twice." With that, we sped across the steel plating of the deck, ready to face whatever Razorbeard and his cronies would throw at us. However, it didn't take long for Razorbeard to catch onto us.

He came on the loudspeaker ready to address us about our imminent doom (of course, he always tells us about our imminent doom). "ATTENTION SONIC HEROES!" he bellowed into the mike. "I'm surprised that you pests have made it back onto my ship…very well done! You've actually forced me to use this! Behold…the weapon of your ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION!!!! Muahahahahahaha!!!" *click*

All of a sudden, a great tremble rocked the deck. Then, from the depths of the Halberd arose a giant cannon with lasers, a grappling claw, and other crazy weapons attached to it. From what I remembered from Tails' schematics, this monstrosity could only be…the Combo Cannon! "All right guys, stay on your toes!" I exclaimed. "This thing can be deadly if we're not careful!" And sure enough, Razorbeard's cannon let off a relentless assault of bullets, lasers, and attacks before we could even react.

After trying to counterattack several times, Knuckles finally interjected, "Man, this thing is TOUGH!" "Hmm…it has to have some sort of weak spot that we can exploit…" Shadow replied. "Well if you can find it, now would be a good time to!" cried Tails. Shadow eyed the cannon for a moment, then said, "Very well, but I'll need a minute." Suddenly, Shadow nabbed one of the Chaos Emeralds from my pockets and unleashed his power.

"Chaos…_CONTROL!!!_"

Time gradually slowed down around us, giving Shadow the edge he needed to find the Combo Cannon's weak spot. He sped around the base of the structure, but no luck. He then examined other unique but peculiar spots on the cannon, until finally he saw a small opening on the rear of the gun. However, since the entire Combo Cannon rotated from the base, it would be quite difficult to reach that spot. Fortunately, Shadow had just enough time left to land a quick yet devastating attack to the core and deal some good damage to it. He then raced back over to us just as his power wore off.

"Well? What'd ya find, Shadow?" I asked him. "Well we have to be fast, but there's a small opening to the cannon's core that we can reach while it's rotating around. I'd use Chaos Control again, but my power isn't fully restored yet." "No need, Shadow, cuz speed is what I'm all about!" Sonic quickly replied. "Just leave this to ME!" With that, Sonic hopped into action and began to race around the perimeter of the giant gun. The claw kept trying to grab him, but this hedgehog wasn't gonna stand around and get caught. With lasers bouncing off the ground and random structures on the deck, Sonic was cutting it close with this daring maneuver. However, Silver kept throwing projectiles at the cannon to distract it, giving Sonic ample time to make his move. Eventually, he managed to reach the core opening. Sonic then pulled a consecutive Homing Attack combo and rushed straight towards the core; each hit dealt more and more significant damage to the cannon until finally, he delivered the final blow to the Combo Cannon.

The cannon crumbled into several metallic pieces before rattling the deck of the ship with a thunderous explosion. After the explosions subsided and the smoke cleared, we examined the wreckage that sat before us. "Wow Sonic, you really…um…hammered that thing," I muttered to him. "Yeah, I really did, didn't I?" he confidently replied. But we didn't have time to sit around and chat. The Combo Cannon was just the first of Razorbeard's sneaky traps and dirty tricks, and we were more than ready to take them all on.

I found an extra microphone that was hooked up to the Halberd's PA system. I knew I had to get a word out to Razorbeard about us, so I took the mike, tested it, and spoke into it so that everyone that might be on the ship could hear. "Yo Razor-butt!! I don't know if you saw that, but that was just a taste of what we have to offer you! And if that's all you've got, then taking this ship back is gonna be a little more disappointing than I thought! We're just letting you know right now…we're coming for ya, and we're comin' hard and fast!!!" With that said, I hung up the PA as I stared at the bridge, almost looking the Black Hole Army in the face. After a few moments of silence, I turned to my teammates and said, "All right guys, we still have work to do. Let's move out!"

As we jetted across the deck and into the depths of the Halberd, Razorbeard could only sit and watch in disgust. "Grrr…this isn't exactly what I wanted to happen, boys…what's the damage report?!" Meowth looked at a few screens, and reluctantly reported, "Umm…with the destruction of the Combo Cannon, we're now at an 8% damage rate." "FOOL!!!" Razorbeard barked as he smacked Meowth across the room. "That's 8% more than I want!!!!"

In his rage, Razorbeard accidentally punched through some vital data screens (which, of course, ticked him off even more). Razorbeard then grabbed both of his flunkies by the throats. "Now both of you listen to me, I want those Sonic Has-beens exterminated and off my ship IMMEDIATELY!! Or so help me…E.B., I'll have YOU sent to the Null Void for the rest of your days, and Meowth…I'll see to it that you get skinned alive and fed to the piranhas!!!" He hurled both of them towards the metal plating with tremendous force, leaving an imprint of their faces on the wall. "DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!?!?!" Trembling and petrified, both of them meekly replied, "Yes sir. *gulp*"

Razorbeard sat back in his chair and began to plot his next move, but he was running out of ideas. If there was ever a time that he needed a crazy scheme to unleash, now was that time, because the guys and I were already keeping track of how much damage we were doing to the ship. As we started towards the left wing of the Halberd, we had racked up about 15% total damage, and we were only gonna keep on leaving destruction in our wake. I thought to myself, "I hope you didn't send us any invites, Razorbeard…because we're about to crash this party…hehehehe."

**The Sonic Heroes have made their grand entrance with style, and they've started their conquest of the Halberd with the Combo Cannon! With the destruction of the battleship's main weapons, the Black Hole Army's plans are already starting to falter! But what other devious plans does Razorbeard & Co. have in store for our heroes? Stay tuned for the next action-packed episode!!!**

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	7. Chapter 7: Desperate Maneuvers

_**FLIGHT OF THE HALBERD: PART 7**_

Desperate Maneuvers

**We had last left the Sonic Heroes as they had finally succeeded in landing on the Halberd. However, Razorbeard and his crew didn't take too kindly to their intrusion! After lying dormant for so long, the Black Hole Army finally unleashed the Halberd's Combo Cannon on our heroes! However, after a few close calls and some thorough investigation, they managed to find some faulty circuitry in the giant gun and took out the cannon in no time flat. Now that the Sonic Heroes have made their grand entrance, it's time to see where they head next in their quest to stop the Black Hole Army! Let's rejoin them as they venture into the bowels of the Halberd…**

"Do you have any idea where we're going Kyle?" Tails asked as we crawled through the dark, deserted hallways of the ship. While squeezing past a pipe, I replied back, "Even with that map of yours Tails, I have absolutely no clue where we are…so to answer your question, no I don't." "Well, according to the schematics, it looks like we're coming towards the outer edge of the starboard wing." "Sweet action! Then we'll continue our path of destruction there. Guys, let's move out!"

Meanwhile, as we were navigating our way through the ship, Razorbeard, Meowth, and Evil Bomber were contemplating another quick plan to stop us from interfering with their mission. "Come on, you knuckleheads…THINK!!" Razorbeard yelped. "They've already taken out the cannon, and god knows what's next!" "Sorry Boss, but we've got nothing…we're drawing blanks!" Meowth cried. Suddenly, the metal menace tightly gripped Meowth by his neck, starting to wring him out like a wet towel, and began to growl, "So help me you mangy furball…if either of you don't think of something fast, I'll see to it that you both sink to the bottom of the Pacific and are left for dead!!!" Razorbeard threw Meowth back down on the floor, flopping across like a rag doll.

"Come on man, you've gotta have something!" Meowth whispered to Evil Bomber. But he only shrugged his shoulders and said, "I'm as stumped as you are little guy. Hopefully the boss will come up with something here in…oh, I don't know,…the next few seconds?" Meowth stared blankly at him for a moment, then exclaimed, "Are you NUTS?! What are the chances of him forming some crazy idea within a matter of seconds? We have a better chance of…" Before Meowth could finish his sentence, Razorbeard abruptly said, "Wait! I'VE GOT IT!!!"

The control room fell silent for a minute before Meowth said to Evil Bomber, "Huh…guess you were right man…I didn't know you were psychic…" "The thing is…I'm not," he replied back. Razorbeard began to explain, "Okay, this isn't exactly the best plan I've had, but for now it's all that we have. You guys remember the Heavy Lobster, right?" His henchmen quickly nodded. "Well, from what I'm looking at here…" he continued as he punched a few buttons on the computer, "the Lobster didn't take that much damage in that first encounter with the twerps. Apparently, some of our engineers fixed it up a bit after they got jettisoned off into the ocean, and now it's back to optimum efficiency!" Meowth stopped Razorbeard for a moment and questioned, "Okay, so um…what does this have to do with your plan?" "A very good question, my furry little friend! But first let me ask this…where are those Sonic Zeroes right now?"

The Halberd shook tremendously as a loud explosion rocked the starboard bow. "The heck?! Evil Bomber! What caused all that racket?!?!" He brought up security footage on-screen to show me, Sonic, and the rest of us wreaking havoc upon the wing. "Grrrr…those pests are working my last nerve!!" Razorbeard snarled. With his rising anger, he turned dark red as his internal temperature skyrocketed, steaming profusely, and nuts and bolts started to shoot every which way from his body. "Yikes! The boss is pissed! Take cover, E.B.!" Meowth cried out.

After a few minutes of Razorbeard's meltdown, he calmed down for a bit, then muttered to himself, "Damn it…those guys are taking it too far now! I've got no other choice…" He then turned to his cohorts and barked out, "Boys! I don't care how you do it, but I want those Sonic Heroes off of my ship!! Deploy the Heavy Lobster to the other wing and ambush them!!" "WHAT?!" Meowth yelped in shock. "Boss, if the Lobster gets loose in the portside wing, who knows what kind of damage it will do to it?!" Razorbeard turned to Meowth and said, "Meowth…I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT HOW MUCH DAMAGE WE TAKE ANYMORE! I JUST WANT THOSE INSOLENT FOOLS OFF…OF…THIS…SHIP!!! _**NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!"**_

Razorbeard's commanding voice sent Meowth flying towards the other end of the room, sticking him to the metal wall like an insect on flypaper. After pulling himself back onto the ground, Meowth weakly showed a salute and mumbled, "Yes sir Mr. Razorbeard Boss sir…" Before he could even finish his gibberish, he passed out on the cold, hard floor. "Well with him out of commission…Evil Bomber! You know what to do!" Without hesitation, he finished off what Meowth started; he showed a strong salute and barked, "Sir! Yes SIR!" Razorbeard then turned back towards the window and stared at the orange sky as the sun slowly continued to set on the horizon. As he pondered what could happen next, he could only mutter to himself, "Sigh…why did I have to end up with these incompetent idiots…"

**BACK AT THE PORTSIDE WING…**

We traversed the surface of the wing, trying to withstand the high winds blowing straight in our faces. "How much further do we have to go?!" Knuckles shouted. "I don't think much farther! I see a small opening straight ahead!" Silver replied. "Already on it!" I quickly exclaimed. I bolted towards the hole in the side of the ship, squeezed through it, and popped out on the other side. Once inside, I hammered a bigger hole so the others could fit through easier. "Thanks Kyle, we didn't wanna have as tough a time getting through that as you did!" Sonic said jokingly. "Hardy har har, remind me to laugh next time…" I muttered. But I quickly shook it off and we continued.

As we shifted through the narrow passageways, Razorbeard and Co. were keeping a watchful eye on us on their security system. "Is the Heavy Lobster ready yet, boys?" Razorbeard queried. "All set for deployment, Boss…I still have my doubts about this though," Meowth hesitantly replied. "I mean, after all, if this doesn't work, the ship's toast!" "Do I need to repeat myself?!" "*gulp* umm…no sir…" "Good…then on my mark…" After a few minutes had passed, Razorbeard gave the order: "SEND OUT THE HEAVY LOBSTER!"

The battle mech powered on and began to lurch forward from its resting position. Each step it made shook the area with a thunderous THUD. As we were making our way through the corridors, we had no idea of the metal monstrosity slowly headed our way. Silver pushed ahead of me for a minute and said, "Hang on guys, it looks pretty dark up here. Let me light things up real quick!" We agreed it was a good idea, so we let him go ahead a bit more. He used a bit of his energy to create a ball of light around his hand. Upon being able to see more of the halls around us, we looked up to see the giant behemoth looming right behind Silver.

With looks of terror spread upon our faces, Silver finally looked at us and asked, "All right fellas, I'll bite…what's going on behind me?" I meekly replied, "More like, what's TOWERING behind you…" Silver turned around, and _finally_ matched our expressions before stammering, "T-t-t-th-th-th…THE HEAVY LOBSTER!!!!!" "Guys, run for it!" Sonic exclaimed. We turned around and sprinted back towards the surface of the portside wing as the battle mech released a robotic roar. The Heavy Lobster gave chase to us for about 10 agonizing minutes before we ended up back outside. The mech had pushed us all the way to the edge of the wing, ready to throw us off towards a 35,000-ft. drop.

"Kyle, I hope you know what you're doing…" Shadow said uncomfortably. "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked him. "Dude, you realize," Knuckles abruptly replied, "we're back at the very edge of the wing where we started. We're trapped like rats!" But I only chuckled to myself. "Kyle! This is no time to be laughing in case you haven't noticed!" Tails cried as the Lobster inched closer towards us. "Fellas, fellas, relax! You realize I did this on purpose…after all, think about how much we all weigh, and then think of how much THAT weighs…make any sense yet?" It took them a minute to figure out that with the Lobster's weight all the way at the edge, it was only a matter of time before the entire portside went down.

"All right guys, on my mark…attack then jump!" I commanded. We stood poised and ready to act quickly, for the slightest mistake could send us plunging towards the sky. The Heavy Lobster slashed its claws a few times, then made a daring lunge towards us. "Aaaand…NOW!!" We jumped up and laid down a few good smash kicks towards the mech, adding even more pressure onto the already strained wing until finally, the side of the ship buckled under the pressure.

As the cracks swiftly made their way down the ship, we hurried back towards the inside to safety. The Lobster tried to chase us again, but by the time it had caught up to us, the entire portside was breaking off. We had almost made it back inside, but the debris was falling too quick; when we had reached the hole we made, it was too high for us to get to. "No! We're not gonna make it, mates! This is it!" Ty cried out. "Not exactly, boys!" I replied encouragingly. I pointed towards a small platform near the bottom of the ship that was within our reach. "Sonic, if you will…?" "Way ahead of you, man!" He got us all together, and with a tremendous burst of speed, we dashed off the remnants of the wing onto the platform to safety.

We watched as the many explosions decimated the remnants of the port and starboard bows. The last wing plummeted towards Earth, with the Heavy Lobster still aboard it. "A job well done boys!" I told the others. "With both wings down, we've now racked up about…umm…Tails, damage report?" "Hang on…yep, looks like almost 50% damage now!" "Excellent! We're definitely making progress! Now let's take that ladder over there back inside and figure out where to go from there!" We headed up the ladder, knowing that it was only a matter of time before we had the Black Hole Army in our grasp.

Back at the bridge, there were many dents imprinted in the floor and walls. Razorbeard stormed around the perimeter of the room punching anything and everything in sight; no doubt that he was ROYALLY pissed off. Meowth uttered quietly, "Sigh…I hate to say I told you so, Boss, but…" "Shut it, rodent!" Razorbeard snapped. "I don't need any lip from you! Grr…damage levels at 50% and only continuing to rise…who knows what's gonna happen next…"

"Sir!" Evil Bomber exclaimed. "I have the Sonic Heroes headed straight towards the Halberd's reactor! And according to Meta Knight's daily logs of the rebuilding, he made it so that it could be practically invincible!" Razorbeard then began to pace the floor. "Hmm…invincible you say…? Perhaps we're not as hosed as I first thought…I think I might still have a trick or two up my sleeve to hold them off." "Umm…like what sir?" With an evil grin on his face, he replied, "Oh you'll see, boys…you'll soon see…and so will those Sonic Has-beens…hehehehehe…"

**With the Halberd's wings clipped, the Sonic Heroes are well on their way to thwarting the Black Hole Army's plans! But it sounds like Razorbeard has something sinister in store for our heroes! What could he be plotting NOW?! And what is the secret behind the Halberd's reactor? Stay tuned to the next episode to find out!!!**

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	8. Chapter 8: The Secret of the Reactor

_**FLIGHT OF THE HALBERD: PART 8**_

The Secret of the Reactor

**When we last left off in our story, Razorbeard was running out of time and options. As the Sonic Heroes trashed the Halberd left and right, his only plan (a desperate one at that) was to unleash the Heavy Lobster on a weakened portside wing. Despite Meowth's constant warnings, Razorbeard went through with the plan anyway…and as it turned out, our heroes trashed the Lobster and managed to escape the wreckage of the Halberd's clipped wings. We now rejoin Kyle and the gang as they make their way towards the center of the ship…**

The dark and dank hallways of the battleship reeked with the smell of decaying, rusted robot parts. As we inched our way through the endless maze of corridors, many signs indicated that we were nearing the ship's reactor, the heart of the Halberd. The Black Hole Army's waves of troops tried to flush us out, but we disposed of them hastily. After a few more narrow twists and turns, we stumbled out of the tunnels only to come upon a large door.

"I got this one," Knuckles chuckled. He began pummeling the metal plates with massive force, but after a few minutes of hard punches, there wasn't even a scratch on the door. Knux stepped back, scratched his head, and said, "Ok…I thought that would work…" Tails gladly stepped in and commented, "Say Knux, did you ever think of pushing this button?" He reached over and pressed a big red button on the side of the wall where we were standing. The doors released their latches and slowly began to open. "Tails, you know how much I hate when you do that…" Knux grumbled. But all things aside, the door was open, so in we went.

Upon entering the large area, there was nothing to be seen; all of the lights were off and every part of the room was completely dark. "Jeez! Can anyone find a light switch?" I barked out. We fumbled around for about 5 minutes trying to figure out where we were until Silver managed to find a lever near the door. He quickly pulled it in his direction to switch on all the lights, but when they turned on, we looked around to see a bunch of machinery start to activate. Each machine linked up to another one next to it, creating a chain of power leading all the way towards our main target: the Halberd's reactor.

"All right boys," I began to say. "We're finally here! I'll let y'all pick your own method in order to waste this contraption. Just make sure to leave nothing standing so we can bring down Razor-butt and his crew for good!" We assumed battle positions and began a charge towards the reactor. All of a sudden, just as quickly as we had neared it, we got thrown backwards flat onto the wall.

"Erm…Kyle? What just happened?" Sonic asked me. "Uh, you're asking me?" I confusedly replied. After prying myself off the wall, I charged at the reactor again, only to find myself thrown back once again. "What the…! What is UP with this thing?!" I shouted. Giving a frontal assault one last try, I rushed up towards it, but before I got there, alarms began blaring. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by defense turrets and giant laser cannons. "Umm…that's my cue to run away…isn't it?…" I meekly whispered.

The guns fired every which way as I bolted back towards my team. When I got back, Ty declared, "Well mate, in case you haven't noticed, something's definitely up with this thing! Like the reactor is shielded…or something of that nature." Great…like we didn't have enough problems. But just to add insult to injury, a large monitor appeared from the ceiling, lowering itself to our position. Static crackled across the screen before finally showing that metal menace, the one and only Razorbeard.

"Greetings Sonic Zeroes!" he began to announce. "I trust that you're having fun with my reactor? Oh…of course you are! Because you're now finding out that the entire perimeter is completely shielded thanks to the power of Raritanium crystals I mined out from the planet Veldin a few months ago!" At that moment we knew we had a situation on our hands. There isn't a single weapon, laser, force, ANYTHING that can penetrate a Raritanium crystal.

"Basically, with this shield around the reactor, there's no way that any of your attacks are getting through! You might as well surrender yourselves now…if you do I just might make your deaths quick and painless!! But until then, go ahead and play with my toys a bit longer. Knowing the firepower they have, I'm sure all those guns, lasers, and blades will make quite handsome Swiss cheese out of your bodies!! Muahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!" The screen then shut off and shot back up through the hole in the ceiling. Immediately following Razorbeard's message, the barrage of bullets continued.

"Ahh!! Kyle what do we do?!" Tails cried. "For now…RUN!!!" I quickly replied. We all split up and sprinted around the room, dodging bullets and lasers like trying to dodge rain in a thunderstorm…it was pretty dang tough.

The mechanical onslaught seemed to last for hours, until suddenly one of the laser cannons locked onto my position. Upon the cannon firing, I quickly dodged the shot, but soon noticed the laser beam ricochet off the ceiling, walls and floors before finally somehow penetrating the Raritanium shield and dealing a critical blow to the reactor. The entire ship quaked with tremendous force as the reactor took damage.

Back on the bridge, Razorbeard and his flunkies fell to the floor as the Halberd shook. Getting back to their feet, Meowth quickly asked, "What the heck was that Boss?!" "I'm not quite sure…but I have a bad feeling about it," Razorbeard muttered. He ran over to the security feed from the reactor's core to find that his equipment had become damaged. "What the! How could this have happened?!" he angrily barked out. "I thought you said that reactor was practically invincible!!!" Evil Bomber and Meowth could only shrug their shoulders in confusion as Razorbeard looked on in frustration.

After everything stopped shaking, we all regained our footing and took a look at the reactor. "Wow! How did it get damaged?" Knux pondered. I answered, "Well from what I saw, a laser fired at me, ricocheted off these walls and stuff, then the laser actually went THROUGH the shield!" Tails then took a look at the point where the laser went through and finally understood what happened.

"Guys check this out! The energetic properties of these lasers are just powerful enough to break through this Raritanium! Usually a normal laser couldn't penetrate this stuff, but this laser seems different…" He continued to point out the details of the laser's energetic structure and etc. for a good 10 minutes. "Obviously this is a whole new type of energy. What type it is I can't say as of right now, but if it can break through something like Raritanium, then that's some hardcore stuff!"

"Wow Tails, that's amazing! How do you know all of this?!" I exclaimed. "Oh well ya know…I didn't get this smart overnight…hehe." After scoping out the area, I huddled my teammates together and came up with a plan. "Okay guys, so here's our new strategy. There's a total of 7 laser cannons around this room, and 7 of us. Each one of us on a cannon, we keep dodging the other stuff, then when a laser gets ready to fire, jump in front of the shield and lure the cannon towards you. That should send the laser in the general vicinity of the reactor, and hopefully it nails a hit on the hardware. A few good rounds on this thing and we'll take this entire ship down, and the Black Hole Army with it! Now who's with me?!" We all put our hands in and gave out a strong battle cry. "Gooooo SONIC HEROES!!!"

We went back into the action and started putting the lasers to better use. Managing to keep the cannons distracted, we got the lasers to bounce around every which way and back towards the reactor, destroying the defense turrets in the process. Each laser, as Tails expected, broke right through the shield and dealt a serious blow to the reactor's machinery. With every hit to the core, the Halberd's systems and defenses gradually became weaker and weaker. It was obvious that the ship couldn't take much more of this severe damage.

"Noooo!!! This can't be happening!! All my hard work is going down the drain!!!!" Razorbeard cried out in anguish. He snatched his intercom and blared out on the speakers, "Attention all troops aboard the ship, a plentiful bounty for the squad that brings me the heads of those insolent twerps!!! GET DOWN THERE NOW!!!!!!!!!!" Within mere seconds, the hallways outside of the core were flooded with Black Hole Army soldiers waiting to take us out.

"Yo mates, we've got company!" Ty hollered out. "Well then," I quickly replied back, "I say we wrap up this little tea party ASAP!" Taking matters into my own hands, I snagged one of the laser cannons at its base and opened fire on everything in sight. "You guys are welcome to join in at anytime by the way!" Following suit, Sonic and the crew took control of the rest of the cannons. Wave after wave of troops fell before the never-ending onslaught of laser fire. After catching a break in between hostiles, I warned the guys, "Stand back boys…we're about to see some FIREWORKS!!!" I aimed my cannon towards the reactor and let the lasers fly.

The shield finally gave out from the constant damage, and we all let loose on the remaining parts of the reactor. After a valiant effort, the core finally shattered into pieces and was destroyed. It wasn't long before the room was lit up with explosions and flying debris. "All right fellas, I think that's our cue to bail!" I shouted out. "Tails, what's our quickest exit?!" Before he could get a word out, part of the ceiling gave way to an opening back up towards the main deck. "Umm…I think that way will do just fine," he replied jokingly. Without missing a beat, we sped our way up the makeshift ramps and ledges created by the charred shrapnel.

"USELESS FLEABAGS!!!!" Razorbeard screamed at the top of his lungs as he cursed out Meowth and Evil Bomber. "You insolent whelps have failed me for the last time!! Thanks to your crappy work, all we're left with is a fiery ball of junk that's plummeting towards the ocean! Now you are left with no other option…you two will have to go downstairs and finish them off yourselves!" Meowth's mouth dropped to the floor and cried out, "Are you INSANE, Boss?! They'll tear us apart! We don't have any way of beating them!" Razorbeard violently groped Meowth's throat and growled to him, "Well then you'd better find a way…or consider your sorry hides SHARK BAIT!!!!!!!"

Back on the main deck, we escaped the inner sanctum of the Halberd only to make a shocking discovery… "AHHHH!! WE'RE GOING DOWN!!!!" everyone cried. I calmed the guys down and said, "Easy fellas, easy! Now listen…our mission is nearly complete. We might not have salvaged the Halberd but we did what we had to. Now the only thing left to do is show those Black Hole Army pricks that we mean business."

I pointed towards the bridge and continued, "We're headed up towards the top of that tower and taking them down once and for all. You guys with me?!" They looked at each other, then turned back to me and replied, "Kyle…what else do you expect us to say?" "Hehe…that's the spirit boys," I chuckled. We prepared ourselves, then ran towards Razorbeard's tower in the hopes of finally finishing off the Black Hole Army for good.

Meowth rushed up to Razorbeard's side and yelled out, "Boss! Boss! I found something that might help us out in our upcoming fight!" Razorbeard only glared down at him and kept working on an escape plan. Meowth frowned and decided to tell Evil Bomber about his surprise. "Hey Evil Bomber! Check out what I dug up!" "Hmm? What's up furball?" he said. "Look at this battle armor I found in my room. It comes equipped with these cool clothes manufactured for speed and dexterity, steel throwing knives, double claws for faster throwing, and a couple badass daggers! What do you think?"

Evil Bomber scoped out the equipment, thought for a minute, and finally asked Meowth, "……think you might be able to get one more of these for me? Hehe." Somehow Razorbeard overheard their conversation and hollered out, "Whatever you're planning in there, I hope it'll get rid of those annoying pricks!!!" They stared at each other with a worried expression, but they regained their confidence before Meowth said, "Don't worry dude, I'll see what I can do." They then searched the rooms for more weapons. With the Halberd descending rapidly and the guys and I racing up the wrecked tower, Meowth and Evil Bomber knew they had to make one last stand…and they needed to make it count. Too bad for them though; they have NO idea what's gonna be in store for them. This is gonna be fun…haha.

**Our heroes have proved themselves victorious! They fended off the Black Hole Army's forces and found a way to destroy the once-indestructible reactor! With the ship in shambles and Razorbeard & Co. on the brink of defeat, the Sonic Heroes are on their way to settle the score once and for all! How ugly are things gonna get? You'll have to wait and see in the next thrilling chapter! Don't miss it!!!**

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	9. Chapter 9: A Loooooong Way Down

_**FLIGHT OF THE HALBERD: PART 9**_

A Loooooong Way Down…

**Previously in our exciting story, the Sonic Heroes had stumbled into a very tricky situation. They had found the Halberd's reactor, but they soon learned that it was indestructible because of the Raritanium shield that the Black Hole Army had placed around it! Once Kyle and the gang started attacking, the reactor's defenses activated and started firing like crazy! At first it seemed like nothing could be done…until Kyle managed to deflect a laser past the shield and deal damage to the reactor! That gave our heroes the edge they needed to destroy the reactor AND the ship. Now with our heroes on the way to give a serious beatdown to the Black Hole Army, we join them on their long climb to the top of the bridge…**

Explosions rocked the flaming wreckage of the Halberd as the ship careened towards the earth. Black Hole Army troops ran around in a panic, some even diving off the side of the deck to hopefully save themselves. As we continued our tedious upward climb, walls crumbled around us and revealed the terrors below should we make one false step. "Kyle we're losing footholds and we're running out of time! We've gotta hurry!!" Sonic hollered out. I almost miss a platform, regain my footing, and respond back, "You think I don't know that already?!?!" Ty then noticed an elevator shaft up ahead. "Look up there mates! I think that's our ticket outta this mess!"

Suddenly, a large metal shard snapped off from the rafters above and plummeted towards the ground in front of us. Once the debris made impact, it fell 15,000 feet to the ground, taking the metal floors with it. We stared in disbelief at the gaping hole now looming in front of us. "Great…we were SO close! How the heck are we supposed to get across a gap like THAT?!" Knuckles angrily cried out. For a moment, it seemed as if we were at a dead end.

Silver then got a brainstorm. "Hey guys, I've got an idea! It's not gonna be easy, but it's probably our only option…" We gazed at him wondering what the heck he was thinking. But before we could ask what was going on, we suddenly found ourselves suspended in mid-air. Silver, concentrating all of his telekinetic energy on us, managed to float us across the bottomless death trap and safely land us on solid ground on the other side. He then flew himself across and regrouped with us. "Good thinking Silver, guess we owe ya one," Tails said. Silver smiled and replied, "Ahhh…don't worry about it guys, just doing what comes naturally!" After a moment, we hopped into the elevator and rode to our next destination, having no idea what was in store for us at the top.

The elevator slowly creaked towards the top floor, often shaking from the damage of the ship. Many times on our ride up we got tossed around like children's toys. Finally after several minutes of hanging on for dear life, the elevator stopped and the doors opened up to a huge room with windows. "Well, at least the top floor hasn't suffered any damage…not yet at least," I muttered smugly. We slowly made our way to the other side of the room, when all of a sudden, a deafening BANG rang out from behind us. The guys and I quickly turned around to find two familiar faces staring us down.

"Well, well, well…where do you think YOU'RE going Sonic Zeroes?" Evil Bomber cackled. I glared at our rivals with quiet intensity. "Hmph…I kinda figured that metal moron would send his two goons to try and take us out." "Hey! Who are you callin' goons, punk?!" Meowth snapped at me. They quickly jumped to the other side of the room, now blocking the door leading to the bridge. "If you wanna get to the big boss man, you're gonna have to go through US first!" We all looked at each other for a second, looked back at Meowth, and busted out laughing.

After regaining our composure, I smirked and told them, "Hehe…all right guys, if that's how you want it, then I won't deny you a fight. But I assure you, this is gonna end quickly." Meowth and Evil Bomber geared up in their battle armor, equipped their weapons, and replied, "That's what you think, twerps." "Grrrrr…BRING IT!!!!" I rushed them first and backsided their faces with a couple good blows, sending them flying across the room. Meowth quickly got back up and saw us coming back, so he reeled back, readied his daggers, and lunged forward in one fell swoop. The unexpected attack managed to knock us off our feet and throw us against the walls.

We got back up only to find Meowth and Evil Bomber ready to attack once again. They hacked, slashed, punched, kicked, and fought relentlessly, but we matched them move for move. Then Meowth decided it was time to step things up a notch. "All right fellas, let's see what you think of THIS!" Suddenly he summoned a duplicate of himself, pulled out two claws and some throwing knives, and jumped in the air. Like a spring thunderstorm, ninja stars rained down upon us from every direction. The onslaught continued for what seemed like hours, until finally Meowth ran out of knives to throw.

Battered and bruised, we got back on our feet and readied ourselves to attack once more. But before we made our move, I noticed something that could possibly play a key role in our victory. I turned to Meowth and said, "Hey furball, you might wanna work on where you're throwing next time!" A confused look appeared on his face as he replied, "What are you talkin' about, twerp? You guys almost just got turned into Swiss cheese!" "Hehe…take a look."

I pointed towards the window, and Meowth turned to see one of the knives wedged into the glass. "So? Big deal! What's that gonna do?!" Before he could say anything more, the glass began to split. It was a slight crack at first, but as the window weakened, the crack in the glass became bigger and split off in more directions. It wasn't long before the window shattered into several pieces. But soon after, a huge rush of air filled the room and began to suck us out of the ship like a vacuum.

"We're gonna get sucked out guys! Find something to hold on to!!" I shouted out. The guys and I tried to hang onto the metal floor but there was nowhere to get a grip. Evil Bomber ended up getting caught in the suction and got shot out into the open sky. Then, as if things couldn't get any worse, the ship lurched over to the left, shifting all the momentum straight towards the gaping hole now looming below us. "This is it mates, we're done for!" Ty cried. Things were looking very grim for us…some vacation this has turned out to be.

However, as we slid towards the end of the floor (or wall now if you wanna call it that), Sonic managed to grab hold of a small ledge right before he was about to fall. He looked up towards me and hollered, "Quick! Kyle! Grab my feet!!" I made a reach over towards him and managed to secure a grip on him, and the others followed suit. But we weren't out of the woods just yet; Meowth had managed to claw his way onto Tails' back. As he climbed up towards me and Sonic, he knocked off my teammates one by one and sent them plummeting towards the earth below.

"Shoot…Sonic, we've got company!" I yelled out to him. "Well what do you expect me to do about it?! In case you can't tell, I'm a little busy hanging on for dear life!!" Meowth inched closer and closer to us as he growled, "Grrrrr…you twerps aren't gonna escape me THAT easily!" He had already knocked off Tails, Silver, Ty, and Shadow. Knuckles tried to fend him off by swatting at him with his hand, but it wouldn't be long before he lost his grip too. It was then that I made a very risky but important decision.

"Sonic, listen to me. I'm gonna need you to finish off Razorbeard for me." He stared at me in disbelief, nearly speechless. "When Meowth gets up here…I'm letting go. He's not taking all of us with him." After a few seconds, he managed to say, "WHAT?!?! Kyle what are you thinking?! I'm nowhere near as powerful as Razorbeard is, he'll tear me into shreds! I don't know what I'd do if you weren't there! I…I can't do this alone! I NEED you!!!" Tears began to form in his eyes as Knuckles finally got knocked off. Meowth was now clawing at my feet, ready to make his move. "I've got you now, twerps!!!!" I didn't have much time left…

"SONIC!! I know you can do this. Over the years I've watched you turn into something that I never thought possible…you've become just as powerful as me. If there's anyone that I could choose for a mission like this, it's you. I want you to be strong, for me…for all of us…Sonic, we believe in you. You are now Earth's savior; the fate of the world, perhaps maybe the entire universe, rests with you." As he cried, Sonic managed to say, "Thanks Kyle…that means a lot coming from you. I'd hug you, but…well, ya know…" "Now, here's the Chaos Emeralds. You're gonna need 'em. I'll take care of this flea-ridden furball!" Meowth climbed on my back and was ready to take me down. "Ohhh no you don't! If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!!!" He looked at me for a second. "Hey, what are you…?! NOOO!!!" I finally let go of Sonic's legs and started falling into the sky. "Good luck, Sonic! I have faith in youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu" Sonic looked on helplessly, unable to be by my side, and could only cry out in sorrow.

"_**KYLEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!"**_

Meanwhile, 20,000 feet above the ground, Meowth and I continued to fight each other, hoping one of us would succumb to the other. "You jerk! You're gonna pay for this!" Meowth grunted as he punched me in the gut. "HA! I don't think so!" I managed to secure him in a tight headlock and completely immobilize him. "Now I can die happy, knowing I managed to stop you guys and your evil scheme!" Meowth only looked on in horror as he cried out, "Maybe you can die happy, but not me!!" I then snapped his pressure point, knocking him out. That's one annoyance out of the way…hehe.

Suddenly, when we got to about 500 feet from the ground, we came to a stop. "Hey…what happened?" I said. We started floating towards the ground, and upon a closer look, I saw Silver bringing us down, along with the rest of my team looking on. "Guys! You're all right!" I exclaimed. "Yeah! Thanks to the quick thinking of Silver here, we managed to land safely," Tails replied. "But…what about Sonic?" As I let go of Meowth and landed on my feet, I only turned away and said, "Sighh…he's on his own now…"

The others gasped upon hearing my statement. "You…you mean…?" "No don't worry, he's still alive. But he has to face Razorbeard on his own now. It's gonna be tough, but I have faith in him that he can do it." We looked up at the descending wreckage of the Halberd as it continued to fall towards the ocean. "There's nothing else we can do for him…is there?" Shadow asked me. "Unfortunately, no," I replied. "All we can do for him is cheer him on. Good luck Sonic…it's all up you now…"

Sonic continued to look down towards the clouds, only thinking about what could have happened to me. "Grr…snap out of it Sonic! Kyle would want you to get up there and stop that metal menace!" he thought to himself. He pulled himself up onto the small ledge with whatever strength he had remaining, and with quick dexterity, hopped across some sturdy debris to safety. The Halberd leaned back upright, throwing Sonic back towards the wall, but making the door from earlier accessible once again. He slowly opened the door and stepped inside the next room. "Well whaddaya know…another elevator. We went through all that trouble just for this?" he said. But he shrugged it off, called the elevator, and stepped inside upon its arrival. But little did he know that at the top of this elevator, his greatest challenge awaited him.

Razorbeard watched the security footage of the action that had happened just below the bridge, and saw Sonic riding up towards him. "Hehehe…and then there was one. So, you managed to fend off my flunkies, but at what price, hedgehog? Your friends have fallen, and once you hurry your butt up here, you will share the same fate as them. I hope you're ready, hedgehog, because if I'm going down with my ship, I'm gonna be sure I'm taking someone with me…" He walked towards the window with an evil grin on his face. "This is it…it ends NOW! Haha, hahahahahahaha, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

**With everyone but Sonic suddenly out of the picture, it's now up to the Blue Blur himself to take down the powerful Razorbeard. Who will prevail in the upcoming battle? Sonic the Hedgehog, the newly appointed savior of the Sonic Heroes? Or Admiral Razorbeard, the metal menace with a death wish? You won't wanna miss this epic conclusion! Stay tuned for the final installment of our story!!!**

**TO BE CONCLUDED…**


	10. Chapter 10: Sonic VS Razorbeard: Endgame

_**FLIGHT OF THE HALBERD: PART 10**_

Sonic VS. Razorbeard: Endgame

**When we last left our heroes, they were steadily making their way up towards the bridge to finish off the Black Hole Army once and for all. On the way though, they got an unexpected welcoming by Meowth and Evil Bomber. Our heroes fought valiantly, but it didn't take long before trouble reared its ugly head. With as much massive damage to the Halberd that's been done, the ship tipped on its side, sending everyone towards the sky. Sonic and the gang got a hold of a ledge, but Meowth found a way to hang on as well! With Meowth taking down everyone but Kyle and Sonic, Kyle made the risky move to let go with Meowth holding onto him, now leaving only Sonic to face off against the powerful Razorbeard on his own. We now join the Blue Blur on his ride up to the bridge, where the greatest fight of his life is about to take place…**

The elevator creaked and rattled as it slowly made its way up to the bridge. The higher it went, the more uneasy Sonic became. He had never been in a situation like this before, and now the fate of the world rests on his shoulders. "Sighh…come on Sonic, you can do this," he thought to himself. "If Kyle were here, what would HE do?" Before he could think anymore, the elevator began to slow down; he had finally reached the top. Sonic began to psych himself up for the upcoming faceoff with the metal menace, Razorbeard.

A small bell rung softly in Sonic's ears. The elevator doors slowly opened, and he quietly snuck around the hallways leading to Razorbeard's domain. After a few minutes, he came upon a large metal door with a keyboard. Upon further investigation, the small machine read, "Enter password." Sonic thought for a moment, then he typed in "Black Hole Army." But the security system merely buzzed at him and recited, "Incorrect password. Please try again." Sonic became annoyed, and finally he said, "Oh, forget this! I'm gonna do this the old-fashioned way!" He pounded away at the door, putting dents over the surface of it. With the metal structure weakened, Sonic gave the door one final blow to blast it out of its holding place.

Sonic stepped into the new room and looked around a bit. Electronics were running at full capacity, and a mysterious figure stood at the windows, staring towards the orange sky. Sonic took a few more steps forward and shouted out, "All right Razorbeard…the jig is up. Why don't you just come quietly?" The figure, which did turn out to be Razorbeard, turned around and stared at him with an evil glare. The beeps and blips of the electronics suddenly stopped, and the room fell completely silent. Then, Razorbeard spoke.

"Well, well, well…you've finally arrived," he began to say. "I was actually starting to get worried about you. Was your trip up here…enjoyable?" "Hardly…we nearly got shanked by debris and my friends are freefalling in the air right now. Thanks to you, I'm the only one left!" Razorbeard chuckled and continued, "Hehehe…so you're gonna be the only one that's got the guts to take me on? Funny, I've never known you to be _this_ courageous before. Either you're really brave…or really STUPID!!" Sonic's anger quickly escalated.

"Pft…save your breath, hedgehog. I suggest you save your energy…I'd prefer to kill you while you're at your full power. Honestly, I don't know where you got the idea that you thought you could beat me. That prick Kyle must be force-feeding you these lies! But what does he know? He's just a dumb, no-good, piece of…" "JUST SHUT UP!!!!!!" Sonic rushed towards Razorbeard and planted a solid fist in his face, sending him flying towards the wall and damaging a lot of equipment. Although dazed for a moment, Razorbeard got back on his feet and laughed. "Ahahahaha!! So that's how you wanna play tough guy?!" He brushed himself off, then powered up. "Fine then…shall we?" Suddenly, he vanished into thin air.

Sonic looked around the room, panicking about where Razorbeard could have run off to. But before he even had a chance to think of where to start, the metal menace suddenly appeared behind him. "Hehe…boo." THWACK!! Razorbeard dealt a harsh uppercut to Sonic and smashed him straight into the ceiling. After he fell to the ground, Razorbeard then unleashed a swarm of punches, kicks, and other powerful moves before grabbing him and hurtling him into the steel wall. Now in a daze, Sonic was barely able to stand up. He tried charging towards Razorbeard, but with the lack of energy, he took merely 3 steps before falling to the ground and fainting.

"Hahahahahaha! You're a persistent little twerp aren't you?! I guess you don't know when you're beat. Perhaps I should help remind you…" Razorbeard slowly walked towards Sonic, ready to execute a finishing move that would end everything that we had worked so hard for. However, with every part of his body in extreme pain, Sonic somehow gathered the strength to move around. He took his arm and appeared to reach for something. "Eh? Wait…what are you doing, hedgehog?!" Suddenly, Sonic pulled out…

"Yes! The Chaos Emeralds!!!" Razorbeard stepped back in shock. "NO WAY!!!!! How the heck did you get those?! I thought the other twerps had them!!!" "Guess again, Razor-butt! Now it's time for me to show you what I can REALLY do!!" The Chaos Emeralds began to spin around him as he levitated off the ground. As the Emeralds spun faster, a bright light emanated from Sonic. After a few minutes passed, his transformation was finally complete.

Sonic's body changed from blue to gold, and a yellow glow beamed around him. Floating in mid-air, his casual smile was replaced by a determined grin and a downward slant of his eyebrows. He gave off an energy signature so strong, the guys and I could feel it 10,000 feet below him. "Wow! Did you guys just feel that?" Tails exclaimed. I stared into the sky and replied, "I did, Tails…Sonic has finally realized his true power. Using the power of the Chaos Emeralds, he's turned into…SUPER SONIC!!!"

Razorbeard frantically backed into a corner as Sonic hovered towards him. With fear in his eyes, he sputtered out, "I…I've never seen anything like this! Wha…what ARE you?!" Sonic snagged the titanium tyrant by the throat and replied, "I'm the guy that's gonna kick your scrawny, metal ASS!!!" He spun around in dizzying circles and flung Razorbeard towards the ceiling, but the villain managed to ricochet back to the floor and recover from the attack. "Grrr…I don't know how you got so powerful, hedgehog, but I do know one thing for sure. Only one of us will be leaving this ship alive!" "Well then I guess there's only one way to find out who that is, huh?" The distant sounds of explosions echoed through the mangled wreckage of the command center. "Very well then, hedgehog…BRING IT!!!!!"

For several minutes, punches and kicks were thrown, bodies were slammed, and stuff got blown UP. Sonic and Razorbeard were both evenly matched, matching each other's attacks move for move. Suddenly, Razorbeard took his arm, quickly sharpened it and lunged towards Sonic. At the last second, he dodged, leaving Razorbeard flat on the ground and helpless.

Sonic jumped at the opportunity and hammered a fist straight onto his back. The metal menace yelped out in pain as Sonic continued his onslaught. After a few well-placed attacks, Razorbeard lied crumpled on the ground like a worn-out soda can. Sonic finished off by throwing him upwards, letting him drop, then smashing his face with a massive kick. The force of the blow was so tremendous that he blew straight through the metal walls and crashed all the way at the other end of the halls. With no more strength left, Razorbeard gave in to his defeat, and after a brutal fight, finally got KO'ed. He passed out onto the cold steel floor.

The power of the Chaos Emeralds wore off soon after the battle, and Sonic reverted back to his regular blue self. He walked towards Razorbeard's unconscious body, checked it out to make sure he was down, and finally said to himself, "I…did it…I actually beat Razorbeard all by myself!" He took a moment to soak in his victory. Suddenly, a ringing came from his ears. "Huh? Who the heck is calling me on my Codec at a time like this?!" He answered the call, and much to his surprise… "This is Sonic?"

"Sonic, it's Kyle! What's your status? Are you all right?!" "OH MY GOD! KYLE!!! You have no idea how glad I am to hear your voice!" "Sonic thank goodness, I thought after seeing all those explosions you were a goner! How'd it go?" "It was a tough fight, but thanks to the Chaos Emeralds, I managed to pull through. I don't think Razorbeard's going anywhere for quite some time…hehe." "Yes!! Excellent work Sonic, I knew I could count on you! But don't celebrate just yet…you've still gotta find a way out of there! I'm gonna put Tails through, he has an updated map of what's left of the ship so he can guide you out. Hang on…OK Tails, you're through!"

"Thanks Kyle! Okay Sonic, here's what I have so far. You'll need to bust through the wall to your right. Through this hole there should be about a 20 foot drop below you. Once you reach the bottom, the damage from the ship should form the path that you need to take out to the deck and straight off towards solid ground! Think you can handle that Sonic?" "Hey I've made it this far, haven't I Tails? Sounds like a piece of cake!" "Okay then, we'll be waiting for you. Good luck! Now here's Kyle back…there ya go!"

"Much appreciated, Tails. Sonic, once again, I'm proud of you for what you did up there. You make it back down here and we'll be sure to celebrate in style. And I suggest you hurry too…that ship's looking awful close to crash-landing in the ocean! Get moving, we're waiting for you!" "I'm on it! Thanks for all the support, everyone. I'll see you guys soon!" "Roger that. Godspeed, Sonic…Kyle out."

Sonic switched off his Codec and looked for his exit route. But before he could do anything, alarms started blaring like crazy. An automated voice announced, "Warning! Warning! 5 minutes until self-destruction!" Sonic freaked out and shouted, "Wait WHAT?!?! No one told me about this thing blowing up!!!" He frantically looked for the right wall to bust down, but since he was in such a hurry, he decided to just smash EVERY wall in one fell swoop. Sonic eventually found his path, and he sped off towards the exit.

Debris and explosions filled the narrow halls behind Sonic as he ran for his life. Suddenly, he skidded to a stop at the end of a ledge overlooking a steep drop. "I guess this is the fall that Tails was talking about…well, here goes!" As he leaped off, a tremendous explosion sent fire and smoke flying through the hall that Sonic came out of. Pieces of metal became raining daggers as he fell towards the ground below. Moving swiftly through the air, Sonic was able to dodge the shrapnel with ease; with the final run set before him, he took off at full speed hoping to escape with plenty of time to spare. "1 minute left until self-destruction!" the voice blared. Sonic ran and ran as fast as he could, with the sight of daylight drawing ever closer. But before he reached the outside, a thunderous blast threw him off his feet.

With his exit now blocked, Sonic quickly got back up to find an alternate route, only to find a dark but familiar figure looming above him. "No…it can't be…!" The shadows lifted to reveal the assailant's identity. It was Razorbeard, battered and beaten but somehow still alive! He breathed heavily, glared at Sonic, and snarled, "I told you once, hedgehog…only one of us is leaving this ship alive! Now I'm gonna see to it…THAT IT'S NOT…_**YOUUUU!!!!!!!!**_"

Razorbeard tore up a large steel plate from the ground and hurled it at Sonic, turning the grating into a large razor blade. But he dodged it quickly, nearly getting sliced apart. Looking for the right opportunity, Sonic sped away and dashed through the hole left from Razorbeard's entrance. "Oh no you don't, hedgehog! I won't let you get away from me THAT easily!!!" He flew down the corridor and chased after Sonic, determined to take him down along with his mangled ship.

Sonic ran for his life as shrapnel and energy bombs generated by Razorbeard rained down upon him. Every step he took felt like a crawl trying to evade the massive onslaught. The attacks inched closer and closer towards his position, but just as soon as he thought he was done for, Sonic suddenly came upon a dead end; at the bottom of the wall, a small, thin hole could be seen with sunlight shining through. He quickly fell to the ground and slid on his feet to fit through the tiny crevice. "Where do you think YOU'RE going, twerp?!" "Away from you, Razor-butt!" "Wha…?" Razorbeard looked back up in front of him, but by the time he saw the wall zooming his way, it was too late.

As Sonic hopped back to his feet, he saw the indentation of Razorbeard's flattened body in the wall. He scoffed at his misfortune, then ran across the deck, almost home free. But like a stomped cockroach, Razorbeard refused to stay down. He hammered his way through the wall, and with his sights set on Sonic, jettisoned his way towards the end of the ship. "Ha…ha…almost…there! If I can just hit this giant debris ramp, I'll be in the black!" Suddenly, Razorbeard landed in front of the junk pile with a devastating slam. With his escape now blocked, Sonic quickly screeched to a stop; now there was nowhere left for either of them to go.

"END OF THE LINE, HEDGEHOG!!!" Razorbeard barked at Sonic. "You've been a thorn in my side for long enough!! You couldn't leave us alone, just HAD to dig deeper didn't you?! Well now look where we are…our teammates ditched us, with just the two of us on a fiery, screaming, metal death trap on its way down to the ocean! And if I'M going down, then goddamnit I'm taking you with me!!!!! So, any last words before I gut you like a fish…punk?!" Sonic stood paralyzed with fear, until something suddenly caught his eye: Razorbeard's hat was in perfect alignment for Sonic to perform a Homing Attack, which would knock Razorbeard off balance. That would give Sonic the chance he needed to escape to freedom. After scoping out his trajectory, he finally said, "Yeah…just 4. GET OUTTA MY WAY!!!"

Sonic curled up into a tight ball and began to spin rapidly. Razorbeard looked on in confusion. "What the heck…?" Once he built up enough momentum, Sonic shot himself forward with tremendous force and slammed into Razorbeard's face, leaving the villain dazed and disoriented. "Smell ya later, Loserbeard! Hehe!" With his escape route cleared once again, Sonic dashed towards the debris ramp at top speed and launched off into the golden sky.

Razorbeard regained his composure only to see that his enemy had escaped. "No! NOOO!! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!!!" Sonic leaped onto large pieces of the ship using them as stepping stones, managing to escape danger; the metal menace could only watch in anguish as the Halberd, along with his evil scheme, sank into the sparkling sea. Before Razorbeard disappeared out of sight, he screamed with rage, "I CAN'T BELIEVE I LOST TO THAT WRETCHED "

After hopping and jumping across the debris, Sonic finally flew towards a nearby cliff and landed on solid ground. "Ohhh sweet earth…how I've missed you!" He threw himself down onto the dirt and stared at the clouds above. It was over…after a snare drum battle, the DCI World Championships, a scary fall into the Pacific, a nostalgic fight with Meta Ridley, an Arwing dogfight, a close call with the Combo Cannon and the Heavy Lobster, destroying the Halberd's reactor, and ultimately, putting a serious beatdown onto the Black Hole Army…this ordeal was finally over. Suddenly, Sonic heard some familiar voices hollering out to him.

"Sonic!! You're okay!!!" the guys cried out. They ran over to him and tackled him, smiles a'plenty. "Okay guys, okay! Get off of me! Haha…I've been through enough already!" Ty pulled Sonic up off the ground and exclaimed, "Crikey mate, you were amazing!" "Yeah man, I can't believe you pulled that off!" Tails chimed in. Sonic blushed in embarrassment as the others praised him for his excellence. Not much later, Sonic saw me walking towards him.

I put my hand on his shoulder and said to him, "Hey dude…I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of you and what you did up there. You've become more of a true hero than I could ever be. Way to go, Sonic…you really pulled through for us." "Thanks a lot Kyle…I'm glad I could finish the job for you guys. Actually, amidst all the chaos and stuff…it was kinda fun! Haha." All of a sudden, a mysterious shadow appeared in front of us. The figure spun around and flung his wings apart.

"Meta Knight!" we exclaimed. Sonic approached him cautiously and said, "Hey…sorry about your ship, Meta Knight." He stood in silence for a moment, then whispered, "You did the right thing, Sonic…thanks to you and your teammates' efforts, the Black Hole Army has been thwarted, and with the Halberd out of their possession, the world is safe once again. Everyone owes you a great debt of gratitude, Sonic Heroes. I only pray that this time of peace doesn't end soon." I stepped forward and replied, "With us around, I don't think you'll have to worry about that." We stared out towards the ocean as the last remnants of the Halberd could be seen exploding and sinking into the deep. Meta Knight then proclaimed, "It seems it is now our time to part. I bid you farewell, Sonic Heroes…and thank you…for everything." He spun his cape around, and as quickly as he appeared, he vanished into thin air.

With our eventful adventure now drawing to a close, we walked back towards civilization, wondering what to do next. "Man…some vacation this turned out to be," I muttered. "You're telling me! I need a vacation from THIS vacation!" Sonic replied. As we neared the city of San Diego, we noticed something rather strange, but very pleasurable to see. I hollered out, "Whoa! Guys, look! It's our RX-8!! And with all of our stuff still in it!" It looked like our vacation was back on track!

We hopped in and buckled up, but Sonic made no effort to get in. I asked him, "Umm Sonic…are you going with us?" "Oh I'm goin' all right…I'm goin' to whoop you guys in a race!!" We looked at each other for a minute, but then Shadow butted in. "Hmph…is that a challenge? Because if it is…I'm more than willing to take you on. You owe me a rematch from last year anyway!" "Hehe…all right Shadow, you wanna play this game? Then let's go!!!" Sonic and Shadow dashed off onto the seaside roads. "Whaddaya say, guys? This looks like it'll get interesting!" And with that, I revved the engines, hit the gas, and with the rest of my friends along for the ride, we drove off into the sunset, ready to finish our California vacation in peace.

_**THE END**_


End file.
